By Tanielle Dlamini

 

You didn’t know who I was who I’ve been what I am now

You didn’t know

Yet you loved me

 

Loved the way my voice sounded as I recounted my latest victims

The way my skin was soft under yours as you were lulled into rest

The way the viper tongues kissed you as you learned about my curse that became your blessing

You loved it

And though you could not see

You loved me

 

So I loved you back

In every way I could

I loved you back

 

I loved the way you smiled and giggled when you met Athena

The way you always made me feel human

The way you promised to kill Poseidon for what he did to me and what Athena had to do

In the end, it led me to meeting you

Which made me learn to live

And laugh

And love again

 

Until I had to leave my corpse with you

Those unseeing eyes waking next to a beheaded body

I begged him to leave you with only a single viper to love until you were to meet me once more

Waiting at the lake of Mnemosyne

And we got to see truly see each other

 

Then you finally got to see my brown locks that were once copperheads

My red lips that you loved so much

And my eyes, that could kill with a stare, made you smile a smile brighter than Helios

 

And I got to see amber waves as beautiful as the day I first noticed them

The pink lips that had sung quietly as I listened from afar

And the eyes that could tempt Narcissus

I had fallen in love all over again

 

I saw you

You saw me

Yet we both fell in love blindly

 

 A Snake’s Lifespan by Sophia Harris