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(Photo of Saffy the Snake-Charmer courtesy of Lyn Andrews)
What I said through the snake
(Letchworth, 2 April, 1995)
I am the blind snake, bleached in the barren cave,
waving in water, waiting: a watcher
who cannot see, swift to surge and strike.
I am a togueless water-breather, at times testing
the alien air then upwards arrowing,
in high rearing, a hooded head.
I am old Mind, unremembered and know too much,
and will slip from my long sloughed skin,
while rocks receive my new body with reeds.
Chris Clarke
4 April 1995
To Quetzalcoatl
Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent,
swept last night the sky with pink and violet
rustling wingtips. Stay!
For you blazed out in Aztec times, and saw
when flinty knives cracked out their victims' hearts.
And were you there when Abram's son was bound,
or when we waged our steely wars?
Bringer of wisdom and eternal life, were you aloof,
or is it blood that tints your shining wings?
Rainbow, snake, you arch alike in Aztec mound
and in Australian cave. Most potent God,
you gaze with victim's pleading eyes,
and, when by day your bow is bent to shoot,
to your own breast in heaven the arrow flies.
Isle of Wight, 12 Nov 1995
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