The Snake

Institutions circumscribe the geofamilial lee,

Wonder immanent to a child is proclaimed more narrowly,
And elided from earnest expression when their lungs will take
But rules, phlogiston, within coils constitutive of the snake.

Attuned to Haintune or Hartland, we escape the retardant
Effect of the snake, watchful snake without eyelids, regardant
Without shoulder, yet stay, as when wakeful, within its purview.
When someone is behind me, following, though not to pursue,

I like to create illusions, abrupt transitions in my wake –
In moments when they have lost sight of me, at a curve, I make
Distance, fluctuant, running but then resuming an apt pace
Before they cease to be blinded and see me there, out of place,

Too far ahead; but my improbable progress, elected,
Is assimilated perforce, and would seem quite expected
After sense is soothed according to that need in all of us,
Personified at Hartland Quay, where a baboon's proboscis

Ever ameliorates the recumbent woman's ague
By resting against her hair. She is sense. And the snake's purview,
Not seeing dreams of Haintune, or Hartland out of its range,
Questions our unlikely headway before accepting the change.

Wonder immanent to a child, in mimetoliths, immense;
See what we can get away with when the snake defers to sense.