The Serpent

After breaking my chains and the skull of a man
I made like a rabbit and ran
I washed up in the fang 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 ouroboros burns in the sky
An eye
Lidless and bloodless and cold
And as above, so below
Life begets death begets life in an endless tableau

From the villages and farms and rez came the men
Dirty and poor and thin
I shed past like 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 and the light

A great ouroboros burns in the sky
An eye
Lidless and bloodless and cold
And as above, so below
Life begets death begets life in an endless tableau

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