Harmless

Contributor: Jade Bennington

- -
Twig in hand,
I part muddy leaf upon leaf,

and out of the puddle, I lift


a ribbed golden fish

shimmering like summer.

That's a rattlesnake. 

It's poisonous, says the boy 

beside me.


Last breath

above water

and the earthworm

I let fall

splashes into the puddle
sinks below dandelion tendrils

my eyes widen,
mouth open.


- - -
Jade Bennington is a writer of poems and fiction. Her work has appeared in Gean Tree Press, a handful of stones, and Meridian Anthology, Vol. III. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and currently resides in Raynham, Massachusetts.