Hatchling Season | Sheri Vandermolen

My favorite neighbors are not
the spectacled cobras
that take diurnal pleasure
in making their smooth way
along the pliant branches
of the ubiquitously blossoming
hibiscus bushes
lining our property walls,
but they’re also not
at the bottom of my list —

at least, that is,
until hatchling season,
when the gardener casually tells
of discarding a dozen leathery eggs
he found tucked in a corner of the lawn
(some with contents already dispensed),
then poking around shrubs,
under wash buckets,
in a fruitless effort
to locate the serpentine mother and/or brood…

when an oxford-shirted businessman,
doubling as wildlife rescuer,
rushes to the scene
and, holding a stick in one hand,
a crocker sack in the other,
nabs a foot-long hatchling
found, by a wary beagle, in a nearby yard.

Locating no trace
of the rest of the ophidian family,
the catcher accepts his small fee,
then displays the contents of his bag
to the fascinated crowd,
before motoring off, to release the snake —
to the wild or to the side of our subdivision,
for eventual recapture (of rupees),
I can’t say for sure.

Sheri Vandermolen is editor in chief of Time Being Books. From 2008 to 2014, she resided in India, exploring the subcontinent via camera and pen until her repatriation to California. Her verse pieces and photographs have appeared in various international journals, as well as in the anthology Veils, Halos and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women.