AWAKENING

AWAKENING

Near our woodpile today I see the

first garter snake of the year.

My wife who hates snakes doesn't

believe me when I

say They're more

afraid of you than you are of

them.

She gives me the look.

She tells our daughter

and her boy-

friend, both five

Play anywhere

but near the woodpile.

I watch them through

our

kitchen windows:

Maegan creeps

to within feet

of the pile

Casey lifts a plastic bat

brings it down

onto a stick of wood they jump.

It's a rattlesnake he says I killed one

before, got it right in the head.

They step back, laugh and run.

Casey takes a stick makes a

gun.

The snake has not shown its head.

They will not give up. until it

does.

They are bitten

by something more secret

buried deeper

than the snake;

they strike and strike.