The 8th Day Copyright © 2009 Rob Lock

They say the serpent was an upright creature
once, lording it in the garden - the cobra’s
dance a relic of this, unrelated to rope,
music or hypnosis - that, growing bored,
seeking distraction from that grumbling ache
in her lower back, she happened across
the humans, gambolling on all fours beneath
The Tree.  The rest, as they say, is mythology:
serpent sliding underground, founding
its sisterhood of oracles and dreams -
easing out eggs of prodigious number.
Humans, elevated by hubris, driven away
to bear their young in pain and sorrow, etc.
I’d say the serpent came out of that quite well.