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SNAKEBITE I am the one And there is no way not To be me not to have been flagged Down from underneath where back Drop ten deadly and Dead pine logs here and where They have fallen. Now come To surprise: Surprise at the dosage at the shot In the foot at the ground Where I walk at what It can do and the ways Of giving: at dry fish scales That can float away In a long dusty arm Now getting itself frankly lost Swimming against the current Of pinestraw winging under a stump And a stone. Here is where I am the one chosen: Something has licked my heel Like a surgeon And I have a problem with My right foot and my life. Falling 2 6 3 It is hard to think of dying But not of killing: hold the good Foot ready to put on his head Except that it leaves me only On a stage of pine logs Something like an actor so Let me sit down and draw My tiny sword unfold it Where the dead sharpen needles By the million. It is the role I have been cast in; It calls for blood. Act it out before the wind Blows: unspilt blood Will kill you. Open The new-footed tingling. Cut. Cut deep, as a brother would. Cut to save it. Me. 2 6 4 ...

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