DEITY

What did the diamondback in the living room
have to do with God? Something, for it is God
I think of when I recall
the perfect geometry of its body;
the way it watched me—for how long?—
without my knowing it;
how it moved without sound;
how it moved across the world,
and I did not know why;
how it could kill in an instant;
and how, after all this time, I cannot pass
the least shadow in the house without thinking
how its dark eyes followed the flash of my ankle,
and it did not strike.



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Copyright © 2008 by Bradley Steffens

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