Abomination
We’re just discussing why Saul shouldn’t have consulted
the Witch of Endor when they all rush to the window
and a dead python’s being carried down the central path
to the administration block. We picture it
lurking round dormitories, raising its eyes out of drains,
preparing to unhook its lower jaw and swallow.
We’d love to go down the echoing concrete stairs,
out into the sunlight among the hibiscus hedges,
press round it like crowds round the Virgin
and slide the tips of our fingers over those cold scales;
the thickness of three waste-pipes tied together,
blue-grey back, whitish belly, on the shoulders of six men
strung out at three foot intervals,
a slitherer that stood on its tail in the Garden of Eden
and somewhere near Kumasi – to teach the first
Ashanti man and woman all about sex.
It cuddled the new-made world, is fed by ‘snake-wives’
at Ouidah in return for oracles.
Page(s) 43
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