rattlesnake

by Natalie Schreyer

Sun rips 

through the triangled treetops

arched and grasping

in quiet symmetry.

its streaks

rainbow reverberations, 

streams of golden glass, 

threaded with an orange glaze, 

lit like the snap of a match 

against its insatiable twin, 

the striker an inevitable temptation 

to ritual, 

worship of the last resort, 

an ungodly calling, 

a shifting of roots and air. 

Natalie Schreyer is a poet in Washington D.C.