The Serpent

After breaking my chains and the skull of a man
I made like a rabbit and ran
I washed up in the fay of Nevada
Where I went on the lam
The sky was a mirror, the sand was a blade
I found work in an orchard way down in a glade
A great old arborous burns in the sky
And I, limbless and bloodless and cold
And as above so below
Life begets death begets life in an endless tango
From the villages and farms and reds came the men
Dirty and poor and thin
I shed my past like a skin
And I left it out west, I washed off my sins
I reached for an apple and suffered a bite
My senses consumed by the roar of life
A great old arborous burns in the sky
And I, limbless and bloodless and cold
And as above so below
Life begets death begets life in an endless tango
The serpent vanished in the shadows for good
I fell where I stood
A Hualapai spoke of a man named Coyote
A trickster in the woods
The others tried to quiet him but seeing no choice
They drug me from camp singing in a low voice