i.
The two-headed snake lazes
in the fogged glass
terrarium, the curve
of the body Y-split
and coiling.IT wants
to curl its spine along the warmed
edges of the lid IT wants to stay right
here half-in the small plastic castle IT
wants to wrap its mouth around
the trembling vole in IT isn’t hungry
right now actually, would
rather remain onlooker
than captor IT wants
to just move closer IT’S FINE where it is,
the heatlamp is here and isn’t this BUT IT’S
hungry and NO not right now it ate yesterday
and they have plenty of time together to digest. WE have
plenty of time together to digest.
ii.
the serpentine curve of the body is split open, as if incised
stoneslick and coiling, the neck two-minded and tangled
all throat and swallow—eyes in quartets. The body
thin-slit and golden. It rattles an omen, and
all comes unseamed at the heart— forks in two.
Caylie Herrmann is an MFA graduate of Eastern Washington University. Herrmann’s previous work can be found in journals such as the Minnesota Review, Burntdistrict, and Noble/Gas.