Requiem for a Rat Snake

Remember the rat snake I mentioned when I wrote about Dora's birthday?

Well, it died. Rather, she died. I saw the article in Saturday's paper, including a picture of a young man I immediately recognized as the emcee of the hands-on portion of the party. I was torn between showing the picture to Dora and having to explain why it was in the paper or just tossing it aside without mentioning it to her. I decided to show her, and though she was sad, she took it very well.

The article stated that a funeral service for the snake would be held at Ruffner Mountain Nature Center on Monday. Monday was cold and rainy but Zelda decided to take the kids anyway. There was a small crowd there, mostly RMNC staff, but the local media was well represented. My kids became the media darlings of the funeral. A newspaper article in today's paper quoted Lovett and pictured Dora, while Lovett was featured in a TV report this evening. Dora took a ceramic angel that she dropped in the grave. Lovett shared how he had enjoyed seeing the snake at his seventh birthday party and how she had helped him avoid a fear of snakes (something he obviously didn't get from his father).

Dora and Lovett, celebrities. And they owe their fame to a fifteen-year-old dead rat snake.

RIP, Lady Gray.

A poem, read at the funeral:

The Snake
Richard Edwards

I hate the snake
I hate the snake
I hate the way it trails and writhes
And slithers on its belly in the dirty dirt and creeps
I hate the snake
I hate its beady eye that never sleeps.

I love the snake
I love the snake
I love the way it pours and glides
And esses through the desert and loops necklaces on trees
I love the snake
Its zigs and zags, its ins and outs, its ease.

I hate the snake
I hate the snake
I hate its flickering liquorice tongue
Its hide and sneak, its hissiness, its picnic-wrecking spite
I hate its yawn
Its needle fangs, their glitter and their bite.

I love the snake
I love the snake
I love its coiled elastic names
just listen to them: hamadryad, bandy-bandy,
ladder,
Sidewinder, asp
And moccasin and fer de lance and adder
And cascabel
And copperhead

Green mamba, coachwhip, indigo -
So keep your fluffy kittens and your puppy-dogs,
I'll take
The boomslang and
The anaconda. Oh, I love the snake.