Tyree Daye

snaking

when I’m a deep brown snake getting my head cut off
my uncle boo boo and george are alive
& I can see them there standing over me

my heroes my mouth slowly opening & closing my killers
the shovel between my head & tail

when I am a dead snake I dream
of a field covered in dog bones & mice
& I am long & I am full

they cut me in half & I am two green garden snakes
making love in my mother’s brown grass

in other stories my uncles are the corner store & they are alive
& I have no snakes left in me

~~~~

my body can be whatever
they have picked up in their hands

I am a budwiser 40
in a brown paper bag thick as moonlight they carry me
what am I when I’m this close
to the dead come back?

I know it might not rain for years if I look into their eyes
when they turn me up they kiss my neck

& though I know their lives
I play along
I laugh a little
in dead men’s arms