Rattled

“She is faded to match late summer

(except for the shock

of black and white over her rattle),

bent into defense, waiting

for a better venom victim than

unswallowable me. We do not blink.”

from “Rattled.”  Thea Gavin of Orange County goes eye to eye with a red diamond rattlesnake. Read how it turns out in Deep Wild Journal  next month! (photo by Ron Vanderhoff)