Snakes

Snakes

i've seen snakes
large and small
attacked
by cats
dogs
reptiles
and birds
big and small

i've seen snakes
attacked
by crocodiles
leopards
eagles
squirrels
rats
mongooses
even water bugs
ants
and the praying
mantis

it's hard
to imagine
how each
of these creatures
knows
the threat
of the snake
by experience
rather
it must be
instinct
that urges them all
so disparate
in species
to still
attack

i wish
i'd been born
with a similar
instinct
to detect
the threat
of the snakes
among us

but sadly
it seems
i'm too dumb
unlike
the squirrels
and birds
even the water bug
to know
or understand
the threat
like they do

sometimes
i get there
through the labor
and heartache
of the intellect
observing 
time and time again
how 2 + 2
never
equals 4
then thinking
maybe
it's just that equation
so we shift
to 2 + 3
with their result
time and time again
equaling 6
when the instinct
of the animals
from the get-go
would have 
clearly
strikingly
unquestionably
given me
their 5
and exactly
what that means
from my
2 + 2