The Andante of Snakes by Arthur Symons
They weave a slow andante as in sleep, Scaled yellow, swampy black, plague-spotted white; With blue and lidless eyes at watch they keep A treachery of silence; infinite
Ancestral angers brood in these dull eyes Where the long-lineaged venom of the snake Meditates evil; woven intricacies Of Oriental arabesque awake,
Unfold, expand, contract, and raise and sway Swoln heart-shaped heads, flattened as by a heel, Erect to suck the sunlight from the day, And stealthily and gradually reveal
Dim cabalistic signs of spots and rings Among their folds of faded tapestry; Then these fat, foul, unbreathing, moving things Droop back to stagnant immobility.
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