The python crawling
by the car
a step away from
me
has curled
around my darkest fears
and crawled into
my sleep
it’s not alone
there’s a taipan
and an adder
and a brown
snake with a glare
that froze me as
it disappeared
up the stairs into
my fears
it’s there waiting
to drop down from
the ceiling
of my overactive
brain
through the
fissures of my dreams
to the nightmare
of my days
living by cane-field
streams
in among these slithery
things.