Uninspiringly a soft black snake slips across the path Flicks its pink forked tongue in the damp Florida air And disappears into the myriad of green ferns As if you to say “Your existence is inconsequential” And perhaps footsteps in the mud is all the hammock Will remember of us (like memories of the dead).
So the zebra long-wing floats on an embankment of breeze Stops to rest on an orchid high atop an oak tree Covered in a vague blanket of whiskery purple plants Hanging over the reflection of a speechless sinkhole The gaping mouth of death where an alligator basks lazily Stirring centuries in the silver swirl of his tail Echoes outward from the beginning of time.
And your eyes begin to open widely (Before now you have just been sleepwalking) To the soft reflection of white wispy clouds To the unbounded blue black of time, the sky To the slow bend of emerald palms in the breeze To the white flutter of egret wings rising up and over Disappearing into the opacity of the jungle.
So the afternoon wanes in overwhelming branches Colors blending delicately into mountains of azure Lilac, plum, auburn, cherry, salmon Whispering to you “Hold on to this moment” Reverberating in the smooth glaze of reflections (The first colors you have ever truly seen) Dripping from the dusky tropical Florida sky Melting into the expanding darkness of the night.