Rattle

I grew up in sagebrush
and rattlesnake country.
Though, I’ve never seen one:
a rattlesnake.

When I was 8, a boy
in my class was bit
at his birthday party
and rescued.

My friend who I call sister
watches for them
curling around fence posts
on her family farm.

A man I know
cuts their heads off and
lines their ropy bodies up
for pictures.

I find that sad,
don’t you?

Not everything
has the courtesy
to rattle.

Two technicians
with an ultrasound machine
can’t make
heads or tails
of the lumps
under my husband’s arm.

They tell him
to re-schedule
with new technicians
and stronger machines.

It’s probably nothing.

Don’t lymph nodes swell
all of the time?

Isn’t it true
we don’t always know
what the body does
and why it does it?

Still, if I could
root around
in his beautiful body
and wrench out
something monstrous
and squirmy–

I wouldn’t hesitate
to heave a sharp shovel
down upon
its neck.

First published in Mantis, Issue 21, Fall 2023