Three Snakes and a Story
The Art of Scaring Your Son’s Friends Away:
First, own a lot of animals.
Few people do.
Second, fall in love with snakes.
They will be some
of your “pets.”
One of them needs to be
a boa-constrictor,
because they are smart
and can catch a dead warm rat
dangling in front of them.
Mine is named Victoria.
I love names that begin with V
because they misalign, perfectly.
My other snake is named Florence
after the city I visited with my husband
when we were still poor, and hopeful,
romantic, and wandering.
My third snake is named after
Virgina Woolfe’s husband,
Leonard.
Leonard Woolfe was a smart
and patient man.
He loved a woman
whom it hurt to love,
as all great marriages
can attest to.
His wife walked into a river
and didn’t walk out.
He and her created something
longer lasting than life:
The Hogarth Press.
My snake, Leonard,
is as dumb
as a box of rocks
for a good
conversation.
Thank God I don’t write
serious poetry.
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