Rachel Swirsky
The Lament of the Naga’s Mother
He said he loved my missing feet
and treasured every scale I shed.
He captured mice for me to eat;
he said he loved my missing feet
and no caress could feel as sweet
as venom turning ankle red.
He said he loved my missing feet
and treasured every scale I shed.
But one forked kiss was all it took
to send him fleeing from my charms.
Despite his lingering lustful look
but one forked kiss was all it took.
My scaly belly he could brook
and chilly veins and lack of arms,
but one forked kiss was all it took
to send him fleeing from my charms.
__________
Rachel Swirsky is an MFA student at Mills College and a graduate of Clarion West 2005. Her poetry has appeared in a number of venues, including Flashquake, and will be published in the anthology Talking Back, due out from L. Timmel Duchamp’s Aqueduct Press in January 2006. She also recently sold her first short story; it will appear in Subterranean Magazine’s cliché issue.
Copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted.
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