13 December

She considers a field. She considers a field and buys it. Let her have the fruit of her hands.
 
We come down from the mountains. Yellow trees, green trees. I was leaving Earth but, before I did, I had to get rid of all my animals. My main one, my main model for behavior, was my snake. He was attached to the bottom of my foot but had become dangerous seeming and I was afraid he would bite me if he got the chance. My sister was there and I said, “Before I leave, I have to get rid of all my animals,” thinking maybe she’d help me. I said, “My horse, my frog, my snake…” but didn’t mention I was worried about how to dislodge my snake safely. As I was waking up, I thought of going to a place where they could give the snake a shot to knock it out or even kill it before they tried to get it off my foot. Which seemed like a pretty good idea, though inconvenient.

Copyright Credit: Kate Greenstreet, "13 December" from The Last 4 Things. Copyright © 2009 by Kate Greenstreet.  Reprinted by permission of Ahsahta Press.
Source: The Last 4 Things (Ahsahta Press, 2009)