upon receiving a snake vertebra as a gift by Danielle Perry

Danielle Perry

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upon receiving a snake vertebra as a gift for seren & katie

a friend once gave me a line of poetry,
love is a strong thing with a backbone,
and she said: don’t forget that you also
are a strong thing with a backbone, &
no one gave you that backbone but you.

snakes are all backbone & skull.
they shed their skin to grow & to heal from injury.
i am a snake who holds on to all her old skins.

love & i have wrestled, two strong things
with backbones, & i have been wounded many times
by love. i have been blessed many times by love.
the wounds are the blessings.
this is the lesson.

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Danielle Perry looked a snake in the eyes somewhere along the way and has been fascinated for years. She graduated with a degree in Religious Studies and English Lit from Guilford College in North Carolina. She lives in Portland, OR now but remains an East Coaster at heart. She spends too much time on Twitter. Her work has appeared in The Toast, FLAPPERHOUSE, and Potluck Magazine, among others.Her chapbook Phases was published November 2015 by Sad Spell Press.