the waters ring red
with the ferrous clay from these plains
brutish brown on cloud cluttered days
caramel during floods
my feet know nothing
of water moccasins, though
a rattler nipped an ankle on these banks
a million years ago
feet don't recall
they slip into the cool tickling stream
innocent, not looking for a Baptismal
though the serpents are ever present
slithering in the depths
just beyond my eyes, only a few silt filled steps
from my ten toes, waiting--wanting fallible
flesh to slip within their sights
where there will be no
original naked temptation, only the striking,
the ******* venom, and the second fall
from grace, without woman to blame