Carolyn Colt Dancy

Spellbound

I’m on my knees pulling weeds when a garter snake raises its head, a live toad held cross-wise in its mouth. Although surprised, I feel no “zero at the bone.” 
Instead, we maintain eye contact simply wondering what the other will do. Spellbound, I wait for him to go about his business: a live toad held cross-wise in his mouth.

I'm told

they taste like chicken

frog legs


Note: Quotation from Emily Dickinson’s poem # 1095 (Franklin), whose first line is “A narrow fellow in the grass.”