Love

I took a walk today and I saw two snakes. In the dirt along the path, a bronze colored snake rested her head on a gray snake. I pang of sadness pierced my stomach as I gently touched the gray snake, just to be sure. He did not move. When the bronze snake saw me do this, she stuck her tiny forked tongue out at me, then twisted and curled herself around him for many seconds, finally settling into stillness and then looking away from me. Maybe she needed someone to know that he meant a great deal. I walked away, leaving her with only the distant sounds of children on the playground, at the other side of the woods. If all I could do was bear witness to a love and a loss, I hoped I bore it well.