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Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology The Ice that Was the Down in the Dirt Jan.-April 2022 issues collection book		get the 420 page Jan.-April 2022 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Snake Season
Klein Karoo, South Africa

Frederick Livingston

Would you
kiss me
under this acacia karoo
if you knew
the mistletoe dangling
from its veins will soon
suck its sweet sap dry
and it will die?
Is this feeling
true thirst or
will tomorrow
be worse?

Some count the drought
from when the river ferns
withered
or remember
the last time
birds sang
storm songs
others say it began
when we swam in
exhaustible abundance
unable to sleep
for the cacophony

of frogs
rejoicing in the reservoir.
The damp soil
held its fragrance
for days
the way you remained
in my arms
long after
our urgent embrace
in the rain
wasn’t final
at the time.
 

We were bound to hope
blood-red succulents
rooted
in ochre stones
would you
measure our distance
since
in scents forgotten
in empty arm spans or
in crumbs
left clumsily
in the kitchen?

We anticipated mice
but not
the snakes
that followed.

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