A fat snake
swiveled down
a branch
into the river
and I wondered,
what if I had
missed that?
I said to a
girl, “They’re
usually not
that big,”
sure she had
seen it flop,
but she said
“Thank God
I did not.
I would have
screamed
bloody murder!”
I walked on
smiling, tracing
the thing’s
path, its
inevitable
disappearance.