Serpent Show

recently learning                        

the eye has
no real substance
that eyes are borrowers
who often times
are skins with no in (g) sides
i now consider what happened
in the garden
to be no bigger than
being hungry and
looting the tree
to stay alive i
i know
i have to
to stay alive
i know the tree
is not "mine"
it belongs to the world
&
i know this suddenly &

desperately, an i
with no real substance
knows this

& eye can't say
don't break taboo
& keep on not no-ing
that's as good as
giving permission
as good as taking sides
as good as
meristem, the green invitation,
a blue hint to hunt for
life-giving treasure
eye knows! it can really exist!

& you have to
to stay alive & so
your eye hunts
with no real substance
the golden fruit of this womb

it's not representable
it comes hissing
no real snakes but
the way the tree
might imagine snake
shedding from its bark something silver
snaking along the branch

or is it the branch itself
hissing at you as sap rises
& light bends the bough
where the branch
seems to shimmer
shakes even, in the
night wind the fruit
falls and leaves turn over
shades under show
shower silver colored in serpent red
every single thing belongs to the
likeness -shade, serpent, show-
all of it tells you
this silver is
something sweet
first something sweet
then that bite

sweet bit, sweet bite -it was real!
and now
you know
the perceptible required
the sensible image
the way the myth
required fear

to keep the word

from dying

by -stephanie pope. image of serpent tree by Howard Rhiengold. Visit Stephanie at http://www.mythopoetry.com/index.html