I Killed a Snake Today: Poem by Ohikhuare Isuku

I killed a snake today,
It was you I killed -
The fear coiled around
Your flesh, glistening
Like glass reflecting the sun.

I did not slit your throat,
As you reared like an adder
Across the lean path,
Rather I cut you in halves

Your rear half
Rolled down the small hill
That walled the path,
While your other half hurried
Into the bramble with
Your thick fear like cloud;
It would bite the trunk
Of an Iroko, and
Become still like a plinth.