A TALE OF TERROR
Vic Frandsen Springville, Utah
Non-Professional Senior Citizen Division Honorable Mention Poem ~~~~
As I came down Manti canyon With a wagon load of wood I beheld in the road ahead A situation not good.
A big old diamond-back rattlesnake Was lying coiled up in the road He looked as if he were big enough To swallow me and the load.
His noise was almost deafening; His tail swished a million an hour Popping off all the fence posts I never saw such tail-power.
The frightened horses bolted With the rattler blocking the road I could not control the horses; I was losing half of the load.
The snake struck at a horse But missed the horse as he swung. His fangs sank four inches deep into the wagon tongue.
I quickly unhitched the horses While the rattler was still stuck there. His fangs dinning deeper and deeper Until they came through the air.
From each of the fangs green venom Was spraying the air in a stream Filling the air with vile odors Worse than those in a nightmare dream.
Thrashing while his fangs were stuck He was popping the wagon around Spilling parts of the load of wood Over an acre of ground.
The snake was about as thick as my head And three times longer than me. I went to work with my double-bit axe And cut his head off at stroke three.
I counted the rattlers on that snake And there were a hundred and two, But several more developing And I watched them as they grew.
Then I beheld the wagon tongue, Fast swelling and turning gray; To save the wagon I chopped off the tongue To keep spreading poison away.
Then I surveyed the damage sustained; The wagon now had no tongue, The swishing tail have broken a spoke And the reach was badly sprung.
I cut an oak tree and hewed a tongue; From a limb I fashioned a spoke, I hitched the horses, reloaded the wood; I was tired enough to croak.
Now that was a true experience Its memory will never grow stale. Though it happened eighty years ago, I remember its every detail.
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