The snake came at night to that place,
Two inches of tarmac over concrete over sand,
For the last of the heat.
When the sun reappears the children,
Impatient to skip rope,
Invade the snake’s dreams.
Still chilled by the desert air, it doesn’t move.
A shovel breaks into the skull shaped like a heart.
The girls play hop-scotch instead.
Jeanne Cannizzo is an anthropologist, an artist and sometimes a poet. In 2020 she provided the cover art for a special issue of the literary journal Adanna on the pandemic. Currently she is working on a textual/visual project entitled “The Strange Case of the Giant Irish Elk.” A joint venture with Irish poet Eileen Casey, it will have poems and artwork by both and be exhibited in Canada later this year.