Trapped

• Alexis Graham, Grade 7
• Poetry
• 2020

Snake.
Slithering, sliding through the branches of a tree.
Like the wind, deadly fast, snapping its jaws on an unsuspecting bird.
Dinner finished, it curls in on itself, digesting, waiting.
As seasons pass, the snake heads off to find a mate.
Spring brings slinking neonates exploring their new world,
A world paradoxical from the immobile white shell that was their existence.
Some find shelter but others find the beaks of hungry birds staring at them.
Two legged, no scales, short fur sticking up from the top of its head.
As noisy as the snake is silent, as slow as the snake is swift. And yet...
The animal snatches a long pole, snapping its fork around the snake’s skull.
Trapped.
Stared at by the animals that the other snakes call ‘humans’.
Staring back at them.
Forever doomed to a life in captivity.
Forever doomed.