Cast Away

Cast Away

After her companion
disappears, my abandoned
pet snake coils around
the molted skin her mate left
in the corner of the aquarium
she knows as home,
the slits of her fiery
red eyes are like focused
lasers shooting through
the glass walls, like
search beams scouring
the empty expanse of
my home, just in case
her unreliable scaly
partner should want to shed
his guilt and crawl
back to her, just in case
he returns to replace
the hollowness she sleeps
with every night.