A brand new poem by Manawatū poet Johanna Aitchison.
How to Shoot with a Snake
Make it an LA day.
Make it in a warehouse.
Make it vibrant exterior, however chilly inside.
Make it with an actress, who has a famously fucked up father; a photographer who’s identified
as Dick; and a Vogue stylist, Polly, whose surname is a homonym of a fruit.
Make it 1981.
Make the actress 21.
Make the snake a recalcitrant snake.
Make the snake lie on the concrete ground on the actress’s toes for 2 hours.
Make the snake handler coax the snake with a hook.
Did I point out the snake was a Boa Constrictor?
Did I point out the person who got here up with the Boa Constrictor concept was the actress?
Did I point out the actress lay on the ground, whereas the sunshine licked the home windows,
and LA’s famously chilly buildings made the biggest organ of her physique seethe
with goose bumps?
Make positive the photographer has his line prepared for when the snake lastly decides to slip up the pelt of Hollywood’s most fascinating star.
Did I point out the snake stopped on the actress’s shoulder?
Did I point out the snake snapped his pink mouth broad open?
Did I point out his ghost fangs? (The snake missed his fangs each goddamn day
of his serpent life).
Did I point out the snake’s tongue kissed the actress’s ear?
Here, that is the place you’ll wish to say your line.
Author’s notice: This poem relies on the Vogue journal shoot with Nastassja Kinski, Richard Avedon, and Polly Mellen, which resulted within the iconic picture ‘Nastassja and the Serpent’.
The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are at the moment closed.
