Steel Serpents

Steel Serpents

Behind my eyes live the Snake-Things.
Stygian midnight scales abound,
Gleaming with unhealthy oiled sheen,
Flesh slippery and metallic.
The smell of stale rooms and unopened crypts.
Coils writhing slither upon their prey,
Spreading jaws wide they wait.
Steel tongues flick once, twice,
Then the stillness of the hunt.
Fiery crimson orbs, no lid or lash, dart.
Sibilant hiss guttural yet drafty as witches breath.
Impossibly long fangs filled with venom,
Paralyzing not killing,
Rendering prey still for the tails devious work.
Barbed stingers instead of rattles flick and weave,
Dripping infectious fluid designed to morph,
Force their target into new unholy form,
Their way of procreation.
Kill one, drive a spike through the head,
Watch the eyes dim out and the body fall slack,
Then splitting in two like rotten fruit,
Two creatures from the corpse of one.
Smaller they are, but growing fast,
Quick as mercury they melt away,
Too rapidly to catch and destroy.
Fail in the kill and the venomous teeth strike,
Stiff, the limbs await the stinger.
Plunged into vulnerable flesh,
Pumping in and out to fill the gash with seminal toxin.
Muscles ripple, shift, and begin to change.
Face grows long and tapered,
Eyes widen to orbs lacking visible iris and pupil,
All is red and of a glimmering piece.
Scales of hematite and carbon steel,
Springing from tender bleeding flesh.
Harder than stone supple as foil,
Ropy muscles coil and flex for the first time.
Fangs slash through gums and extend dripping foul poison.
Lastly, the tail flings itself wide of the body,
Flattening to barb and sting.
Mutation complete, a fresh Snake-Thing awakens to hunger,
To a newly discovered half-life of darkness,
To the unslakable lust for procreation.
Larger and stronger the mutation now waits,
Jaws parted, eyes darting, crooning a hunting hiss.