WEBVTT

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Snakes are curious creatures.

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Rattlesnakes of course, in
this country are dangerous.

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And any of you who
have had a close call

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with a rattlesnake of
course, you probably

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are like me and have bad dreams
about it every once in a while.

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When I was going to University
of California in Irvine,

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we were in rather
rural area and there

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was alarm went out one day that
the snakes were coming down

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from the hills and
of course they were.

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I chuckled about this.

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Fact, I killed one four
footer that summer.

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But anyway, this is the
poem that gradually came out

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of that situation.

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It's called "Snakes".

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The rattlesnakes have
begun to come out.

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Into the gardens,
out of the mountains,

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from the parched fields.

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After water it is
said, after mice.

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The papers have announced it.

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We find warnings
tacked to our doors.

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I think one gardener,
a faithful servant,

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has been bit stooping
to tend a marigold.

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And the child reported
her hand horribly mangled.

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The citizens have
been armed, mothers

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keep their brooms by the
door, police carry shotguns.

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But I have seen none.

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Walking barefoot through the
beds, checking the mulch,

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behind lattices,
even rabbit burrows,

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I have never been harmed.

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But last night fidgeting, I
awoke dizzy to sweet music.

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Outside on the lawn, the
road, the house tops,

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our flower beds were full
of them almost erect.

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Their thin necks
swaying toward the moon,

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humming, smiling, sensuous,
drinking in the light,

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while others sped back and
forth on great rice paper wings,

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carrying messages across
the cloudless night.

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