Pit Viper - N. Scott Momaday

[Larry Robinson]

Pit Viper

The cordite head meanders through himself:
Metamorphosis. Slowly the new thing,
Kindled to flares along his length, curves out.
>From the evergreen shade where he has lain,
Through inland seas and catacombs he moves.
Blurred eyes that ever see have seen him waste,
Acquire, and undiminished: have seen death -
Or simile - come nigh and overcome.
Alone among his kind, old, almost wise,
Mere hunger cannot urge him from his drowse.

	- N. Scott Momaday