Python in the Mall

A serpent-like creature has taken residencein the dark recesses of a new shopping mall.Supposedly the offspring of the mall tycoonhimself, the creature feeds, by preference,on nubile virgins. Tabloid storyShe hatched in the dankBasements of our gullibility,Warmed in the gasp of our telling,Curling in the tonguesOf housewives and clerks.We gave her a body half-serpent,Half-voluptuary, and a tasteFor maidens and movie starsWho began to vanish mysteriouslyBehind the curtains of boutiqueFitting rooms and water closets,Never to be seen again,Or only to be found in the parkingCellars, wandering dazedInto the headlights of shoppers cars.How she fed on our thirstFor wonders, fattened on our fearOf vacant places. SlowlyWe embellished the patternsOn her scales and admiredThe sinuous grace of her spine.Avidly we filled our multifariousHungers at her belly, and lappedThe marvelous tales of her forkedTongue. And as the gleaming templesOf her worship rose in the midstOf our squalor, how we trembledAt the seduction of her voice,O what adoring victims we became.

Marne L. Kilates January 23, 1993