the snake I killed in hampstead creek
by Alexander Eikenberg

Runestone, volume 3

the snake I killed in hampstead creek

I do remember
your flat head holed up, hidden and trapped
in the front foundation of a concrete causeway
that spanned the shallow creek
behind our town.
the cold sharp snagging edges
of the asphalt-stones beneath my fingers
and the November air whistling on my palm
as I hailed down on you
watching— you screamed that silent s.o.s.
tail splashing the molten ice of the stream.
I do remember
days later I
found you held fast,
writhing wicked with a cement straightjacket
burying the breath from burrowed lungs
and still weeping red into the wet current
from gouges like missing eyes staring out
snarled down your length.
I do remember
the next spring slinking back behind those pines
walking out on the bare bridge and looking
down to the green eddies and whorls where
your bones are right where I left them.