poem

by Mary Soon Lee

Corn Snake # 34

Let us give praise

for it is the new year,

the year of the snake, of fire,

of the first flushed heat of summer,

of orchid lips and cactus armor.

Let us give praise

for you are preparing

to cast off your skin

and rise resplendent

in a world fresh-brushed

with flame-orange and coal-black.

Let us shed trepidation,

those comfortable old doubts

worn down to rags.

Let us give praise,

let us borrow your poise,

your petaled grace,

your muscular flamboyance,

how you draw the eye

like the new moon

waltzing in the sky.

---

Mary Soon Lee grew up in London, lives in Pittsburgh, and is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. Her credits include American Scholar, the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, 119 haiku that appeared in Science, and an epic told in poetry, "The Sign of the Dragon." Website: marysoonlee.com.