Prey and Predator

the rattlesnake that slithered by
tasting the air for the scent of food -
it picked up a single faint trace
and in stealthy silence slinked towards
   the source -
a little brown mouse
blissfully unaware

the snake was poised to strike -
and in a flash it would have too -

but face to face
when eye met eye
prey and predator
began to cry -

oh
but to recognize in the other
the soul of one’s own true love -
now in this life in the forms of
prey and predator –

and how wondrous strange it seemed
and what strange wonder it was
to look and see –

curled - unmoving -
around the mouse’s downy warmth
the rattlesnake’s cold scaly length -

prey to predator
predator to prey
both had been separated in place
joined now in a tender last embrace -

the rattlesnake would rather starve
   and die
and with the mouse
wait to begin together
their next new life