My eyes do not blink
Like the setting sun
As I stare at two snakes
Stand on two tails
Twining into one slender stalk
Rising impatiently to reach
The peak of an ecstatic pitch
In which two opposites,
Male and female,
Struggle with each other to be one.
Creepers cannot cleave trees
So tightly like the way
Snakes braid with snakes.
Oily coils toil
Roused by blood that boil
Soft flesh into a stiff rod.
Their boneless lengths,
Undulating like a lissom muscle
Writhe in a primeval passion
To make love grow
Even within a venomous flow.
Sometimes their purled bodies slip
And fall apart in the dust
With a soft, muffled thud.
Then promiscuous blood runs
Blindly to get back on track
To complete what is left to climax.
Then snakes leap together as one
Spiralling into the sky
Each lifting the other
From forked tongue to tail
And my eyes do not blink
A wink
Like the setting sun
To catch every glimpse
Of snakes rising to stand tall,
Each time they uncoil and fall.
H. L. D. mahindapala