“Bright, Blue-Faced World”
2019
magazines, paper cut outs, markers, Feline Pine, medical records
TW for pet death and illness
this fella is available as a print zine here
Ribbon Snake Asleep in the Sun
by Mary Oliver
I come upon him and he
is startled; he glides
to the rock’s rim; he wheels, setting in motion
the stripes of his body, yet not going
anywhere. And, though the books say
it can’t be done, since his eyes are set
too far apart in the narrow skull, I’m not
lying when I say that he lifts his face
and looks
into my eyes and I look back until
we are both staring hard and directly
at each other. He is wondering
just where in this bright, blue-faced world
he might be safe. He wants to go on with the
flow of his life. So he straightens
his shining back and drops
from the rock and rockets through
the tangle of weeds; he slides over
my bare foot; he vanishes
into the shade and the tall grass, down to
some nameless stream, having
startled me in return. But these were both
small matters. What I would speak of, rather,
is the earnestness of his actually fragile and
nervous body; the ardent glare of his eyes.
