Self Portrait As Doomed Amphibian

        At first, such calm: the river
drifting sleepily along its banks,

        sunlight glinting off water – no sound
                but the hush of the current,

splashing over sun-bleached bones,
        a dead log rising in the air

        like summer heat, the garden snake
                lounging in dirt & dry leaves.

        Then: a thrashing in the water,
                 the sun's reflection broken

into wicked, grinning knives, the water
                frothed by twisting scales,
        the predator

        coiled in a pulsing half-knot,
emerging from beneath the glass waves

in triumph.
                      Jaws clamped tight

& dragging the tiny green frog –
        frozen, in shock,     or terror,
                                or denial –

        which puts up no struggle at all, but sits,
so perfectly still, so utterly    silent in defeat,

        slowly retreating without a fight
                deep into the serpent's maw