Friend of the Enemy

The yolk went down my leg Like a beautiful snail without a shell, Went down the hill To the skillet of water, to the nymphflies, Into the lips of pond minnows, Down the long belly of the gar – the hellbenders Having dived and lost, then into The paw of the lame panther Who loped back to her lair with it. As for the white, it stayed with me, Mark of the beast, birth, and trade.