Confrontation by RS Thomas

And there was the serpent
running like water
but more quietly with no desire
to bicker. They see us
with smooth eye; what is a man
in a snake's world? And if
we would come to close,
thye strike us as painfully
as the truth.
xxxxxxxxxxx It is no part
of divine mind to repudiate
its reflections. We must exchange
stare for stare, looking
into that eye as into a dark
crystal, asking if Eden
is where we must continually
seek to charm evil by playing
to it, knowing that it is deaf.



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