Sidewinding

Life is different now. I give things up, things I need to give up, to others. If only. If only. Then that snake appears, sidewinds out of the brush. You can still do that, the s in still, sibilant as snakes hiss.

How many times

Must I give something up

Before it ceases

To come back to me,

Sidewinding like a rattlesnake

To bite me on the ankle.

How many times

Must I give something up

Something which is not mine

But something

I could do

Oh so much better

Oh so much better.

I think

If I were in the thick of things

Then

Then

The world would be different:

Good different.

Nothing like that rattlesnake

Sidewinding,

Nothing like that snake

At all.