Intimacy with White Snake

Photo by Jordi Fontana on Unsplash

Intimacy with White Snake

after the Chinese fairy tale Lady White Snake

I will always be both my selves.

driven by desire for warmth, I writhe

shed the scales and the tiny moons that once danced with my body

peel away the old skin and come into warm sun of the new.

When I make a promise, I wrap myself around it, in entirety.

I am human, I am woman, I am here and alive for the taking.

But Man, as I take you in my emerging arms, you must know

even upon loving and becoming, my heart,

my blood cannot be drained away to feed the soil.

Know this: I am whole and cannot be emptied.

I cannot crush the serpent, for she is my being

I cannot burn the witch, for she is my soul

I cannot whiten my birthmarked skin. O Man,

my promise under heaven is infinite

I'd crawl to the dust at the edge of the world, die for you—

but I cannot disappear for you.

~ Ellen Huang

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Ellen Huang holds a BA in Writing & a minor in Theatre from Point Loma Nazarene University. She dons a cloak on special occasions and basically lives her life from Halloween to Halloween. She has pieces published or forthcoming in Moonchild Magazine, Grimoire, Amethyst Review, briars lit, South Broadway Ghost Society, Awkward Mermaid, and Three Drops from a Cauldron, among others. Much of her creative work is grounded in themes of progressive faith and platonic love. Follow if you wanna: worrydollsandfloatinglights.wordpress.com