Python

Space gets smaller
face and body contract
unknown space
black as ink
hollow inside

python grows
fills space
slithers through my gut

python gorges cookies
little monsters
feed the monster
fill the hollow space
tunnel walls expand
holes in my gut
python pushes food through

python slithers up my insides
numb can’t feel it
twisting turning churning

snake is devouring me
I am the snake

Written by Susanne Allen

Sarasota, Florida – United States

Susanne Bostick is a retired writer and editor from Sarasota, Florida. She had a long government career while writing poetry to keep herself sane. In 2014, The Broadkill Press published a chapbook, Highway 78, of her selected poems. Her poetry has been published in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, WordWrights!, Ariel,and The Broadkill Review. After retirement, she studied hand bookbinding and book arts at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington, DC. She is a lifelong singer in church and community choirs and has performed in opera and community theater.