Ball Python

Poetry | Jaco Beneduci
cw: snake feeding

I am feeding the snake again

Long blonde waves on long black roils

And she coils under the log

I am feeding this snake, and we

Chose to feed it frozen-thawed mice

–Not live

To spare the mice the knowledge

and sensation 

I drive my finger across the napes of

Solid mice, before I hot-soak them

–The last flash of breathing

 Clasped by inner ice

I drive my finger across the nape of

Of a hot-soaked mouse, so fresh

–I see them to be living

And the fur feels nice

I am dangling this mouse over

And the snake has been waiting 

She’s draped over the driftwood

Like a tendril

The never voracious python 

First winds up all the bends of her neck

And springs:

Her open head like a closed fist,

Then all the waves of her body

Coil over

The shape of a mouse

Never voracious, yet swallowing

bones and all,

Saving the tail as she sips it last.

You buy a rat for companionship

I bought a snake for my lover

And she wears her like a bracelet

I roll my fingers down her scales

And she shivers at my warmth

Cold silk is all I feel

The mice are warm

The snake is cold

No matter how much warmth

I feed this snake

She says

The chill’s “quite nice”

When she feels too cold then she sleeps on my heat

But she curls under the driftwood

I am feeding the jewelry and I

Must imagine the snake

Has been waiting

–I have been waiting 

For a very long time

I drive my fingers down the nape of solid rat pups

And the velvet’s quite nice

The cold barely breathes through 

The pelt into mine
There’s a ghost in this poem

Somewhere in the nook

Of the heart

Of the driftwood

The jewelry breathes.