the snake

You follow the road, or rather
It follows you
With its smooth, submissive yellow spine
Tires keep treading on its asphalt-like axons
Mapping out all of its curves and exploiting its intimate mysteries
Just toss your shit out the window and accelerate
Don’t ever look back, you say

Why are you so surprised when you crash
That the road on which you travel is nothing more than a concrete snake
The pretty night sky is really her sooty pit
And that you’re just a mouse who dreams of wings
Oh, you’ve never been a predator but always the prey

She hissed and rattled her black tail when you gained too much speed
on her thin, single-lane skin
But you howled carelessly as you took another drag, another swig, another heart
Tossing out the bottles and the bodies when you were through
Well, confidence kills
The oil-slicked venom sticks and you’re stuck, paralyzed and blue
And the snakes have no sympathy for you
No, the snakes don’t have any sympathy for you.