Here is a dark poem about a girl that I almost let back into my life. That would have been dangerous. Am I being cruel to compare her to an encounter with a snake? Have you met her?

The Seduction

I cannot believe she’d contact me
after what she did to me!
And the gall, to think I’d actually
speak to her.

I guess it’s the part of me
that loves horror stories,
loves roller coasters…

I think about snakes.
I have a phobia of snakes,
and yet, every time I visit
Wilmington, I go to the Serpentarium,
where they have so many snakes,
as well as other reptiles,
behind glass enclosures,
so close you can almost touch them.

However, repulsed by snakes,
I’m drawn to this place
and mainly to the snakes.
I look and watch them
sitting or slithering about,
or I watch the cobra
rise up 3 feet or more off the ground…
I read about how deadly each snakes is…
my hand, my fingers move
in front of a small enclosure
and the small snakes follow
my movements.

I can feel chills
run up my back,
as I imagine
these enclosures
breaking and all these
snakes filling these rooms.

I suppose it’s like that with her,
Amanda.

I’m repulsed and yet
curious; fascinated -
in a morbid way -
like I am by stories
about serial killers
and other sociopaths…
I’m not alone…

We want to know
something about them.
Why they do what they do.

Yet, with that demon,
Amanda,
I nearly invited her into my home
again,
letting some dark desire
squirm its way around my brain…

I’m safe though.
She never got her invitation -
she never crossed that threshold,
as far as I can remember.

So, I’m safe -

This time.