(x = space)

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changelinged

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1

I was invited once

to touch a snake

I like to think

it was a changing experience

not for the snake

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the snake was enormous

I should say

wider to reach over

than with my hand

serpent exotic

in a safe place

for our human sakes

I’m sure

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while I stroked

the smooth and awesome scales

looked up close

at God-given color patterns

the muscles moved

they rippled

in a kind of normal splendor

to our given

giving

Lord

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what new thing did it know

it had to move that way

and by the way

representing all

the better sides of Eden

in its normal work

glory

and play

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2

the poor snake

gets short shrift

as an inhabitant in paradise

and then cast out

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same thing

you know

happened with us

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and we can say

who changed

but everyone

and who shall be redeemed

and maybe

all creation

if it was everything

that fell with us

our choice

remember

and we can remember

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maybe the serpent shall be changed

if the satan in

the twenty-plus chapters be

dispossessed

of nefarious

possession

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now to wander

and climb freely over

all of our

new Earth

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c l couch

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I’m pretty sure this was part of a program sponsored by ZooAmerica at Hersheypark

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Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

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