An Ethic

It is not wrong,

Killing rattlesnakes in your mother's yard,

Beheading them deftly with shovels and hoes.

You only need to see one dog,

Mudhead swollen with venom and pus,

Or imagine the death of a child,

Or imagine the stronger child

Suffering the poisoned wound,

To see that.

It's the nature of snakes to strike;

It's the nature of men to strike:

Don't let morals muddy that.

Kill with the brute neutrality

That impels the hollow fang,

Then welcome blade or fang.

I want to show you,

Someday,

A place where the kingfisher falls

Across the dawn's haze

Like a sharp blue stone,

Where

Wedge-headed vipers

Swim to shore and

Slide like paper on paper

Through autumn grass

And need not be slain.

–1981