When I am old

it will be okay for me to talk to old man snake

out in the sun

up the spine of Canyon de Chelly

I will be beveled like stained glass

with sunshine in my veins

and sand underneath my fingernails

When I have the luxury of being gray

and bent over the mesa in my many skirts

it will be okay for me to be crazy

and tell the stories

about the rattler who fell in love with me

when I was a young woman

He was old and lonely

tired of coiling around rocks

and I came with bruises on my lips

and cherries in my little apron

our from the hogan

where eagle sat drying his drunken youth into an aging man’s 

dying liver

Jack Daniels dripping down his fingertips

with my blood

Old Man Rattler loved my youth

he came to eat the cherries from my palm

and pull me into the shadow of his rock from the burning Arizona 

sun

he coiled me into his dreams

shifting me across a thousand miles of sand and mesas on sleek

belly

and scales

he kissed me a thousand times

deep inside my heart from the cold desert night

we watched the stars

and he dreamed of being human again

and knocking the hell out of the jackal for this bad joke of a forked 

tongue

and unhinged jaw

and I dreamed myself into the stars

out of the blood taste in my mouth

and the bruised taste on my soul

When I am an old woman

it will be okay for me to talk to rattlesnakes

and to find the rock

in canyon De Chelly

for my bones

but for now

I cannot talk to snakes

and my manicure must be perfect

and my hair must hide the silk strand of white at the temples

with gold

But one day I will be old

and I will be happy

in my big skirts

and my wrinkled skin

rattling bones

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Copyright 2012 by Victoria Selene Skye-Deme; Images: The Nude Snake Charmer by Paul Desiré Trouillebert circa 1880; Detail of Snake Women by Boris Vallejo.