Monday, January 30, 2012

Instincts (a found poem from an article in The Las Vegas Review Journal)

Earlier this week,
a 3-year-old boy was
bitten and squeezed
unconscious by an 18-foot
reticulated python.
"She wasn't trying to hurt him,"
the grandmother said of the snake.
"She just instinctively, as a snake would do, coiled him."
The child's mother stabbed the snake 17
times with a kitchen knife.
"I'm so proud of my daughter," the grandmother said.
"Her mother instincts kicked in."
The snake belonged to a strip club that was being renovated.
The toddler had a few bite marks on his chest--none 
required stitches,
according to the grandmother.
"The snake was a good snake," she said.
© Linda Peterson, 2012

Reticulated python
Wikimedia photo by Mark Patterson

2 comments:

Camisha L. Jones said...

The ironic sameness found in the snake's and the mother's intent and instincts makes this poem really interesting.

Tony Russell said...

Linda's good eye and witty sense of humor provide a funny take on two very different instincts at work here!