O Serpent
Poem
Published on February 26, 2021
O Serpent
Poem
O hissing reed, O poison chalice, O coiled venom,
Waiting like fates in the familiar bush
Or sleeping like destiny in folds of time.
What malevolent will made thy dangerous marvel,
And throned thee on thy own heaped body,
Thy hooded crown bearing thy trident sigil?
O supple lightning, fear’s agile spear,
What ancestry of force lent thee shape,
Who cleaved thy tongue,
Who shaped thy dagger-fang? Piping poison
From thy dismal heart, that fount of maladies!
Art thou time’s kin, weaving slowly a noose
Around the neck of life?
Who of thy kin stirs in us, coiled in base of spine?
Hissing with tongues of light, rising through
The portals seven of subtle power.
What great thousand-hooded forerunner thine
Was chastised by the dancing blue-feet
With liquid rhythms of his mastering power?
Knowest thou thy kin who shapes a bed upon infinite waters
For Him at the peak of the great triple-step,
He who reclines in repose above the labour of worlds?
Whatever be thy nature, shed thy mask of menace,
Lend us thy better powers, shield us from all hooded harm,
Garland us as the Mountain Dweller, be wielded by us,
A power unerring by will deployed,
Become an ornament living of our being.
O Serpent, king of all lurking forces,
Bring thyself and all thy beneficences.