Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com


        Watch Where You Step; There Might be a Senator in the Grass


                    But hiss for hiss return’d with forked tongue

                                           -Paradise Lost X.518


The summer heat like judgement on the earth -
It fell upon the roiling afternoon dust
Where two foul snakes in deadly combat writhed
With hiss and strike and hate-spittled fangs

In a world of crunchy grasshoppers and tasty frogs
Of careless bunny rabbits and baby squirrels
The snakes found only their hatred for each other
Until one serpent choked on the other, and both died

And there, my children, is a lesson in brief
About the government of the State of Texas