Black Racer
Non-venomous, very helpful garden friend.
This one was between 18″ and 2′ in length, and loving the
warmth of our sun-baked bricks.

In honor of National Poetry Month, I’m sharing one of my favorites. Being a reptile lover at heart, this has always appealed to me. And since I spotted my first black racer of the year in my back yard yesterday, it seemed especially appropriate.  Of course, I don’t feel the same way about snakes as Emily, saving my “zero at the bone” for hairy-legged spiders, but it’s still a lovely poem. Enjoy!

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickson  

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him–did you not
His notice sudden is,
The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen,
And then it closes at your feet,
And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn,
But when a boy and barefoot,
I more than once at noon
Have passed, I thought, a whip lash,
Unbraiding in the sun,
When stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled and was gone.

Several of nature’s people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality.
But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.