If You Are Not From BC
By Alden
If you are not from B.C.
You don’t know the snakes
You can’t know the snakes.
Garter snakes, bull snakes, rattle-snakes
Green snakes, black snakes, huge snakes
Little snakes, pet snakes, wild snakes.
Yes, I know, I know
They don’t only live in B.C.
But still I say, if you’re not
From B.C., you don’t know the snakes
You can’t know the snakes.
Not the snakes, I’ve caught, how they wiggle
And wrap around
Your thumb
As if
It were a
Little pink mouse.
Alberta’s too cold for them
And so are
All the other
Places around B.C.
So come to B.C.
And maybe, maybe I’ll
Show you the snakes.
We would like to give credit to the author David Bouchard whose book If You’re Not From the Prairie… gave Alden the idea for his poem.
