Summer holidays, my cousin and I
swim near my aunt’s work in Wyoming;
a display pool, next to the Reptile Park.
It’s hot! We jump straight in; we play, we splash—
unsupervised. But what’s that on the
water line? That something, long and black?
We get up close. Splash it, see if it
moves. It doesn’t. Looks a bit like a
snake, though, doubled up? Probably dead!
I know, let’s poke it! Snap a stick of bamboo
and poke— It isn’t dead. Races off
up the pool and back doing its laps
body bent to a right-angle, head aloft—
just like a cartoon cobra—come to life.
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Wordflower 
I bet you weren’t expecting that!
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That snake was hella dramatic
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This was written for a poetry exercise that requires you to write about an actual event in your life, in lines of 9-11 syllables, over an 11-15 line poem. A further constraint was that there should be a minimum of poetic devices used – no rhyme, no fixed meter, no metaphor unless it forced its way in
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I like the idea and alliteration of ‘cartoon cobra’ 👍
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Thanks Shaun! For the exercise we were supposed to avoid metaphor but that one felt essential to telling the story…it was a surreal experience for sure
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