Maggie Boyd Hare
Third Grade
We trapped a garden snake
in a red bucket fitted with
a scrap of screen door.
Forced leaves and small bugs
through to keep the creature
happy. I wanted her
to be happy, prodded her
with a stick. She circled
in the low water, weaving over
leaves. I stayed curled around
the bucket, legs pocked with grit
from the cement, swirling her
with the stick, until she climbed
it, pushed against the lid—
no hiss, just silent slither
past my knee.
Maggie Boyd Hare is an MFA candidate at University of North Carolina Wilmington, where they work as a teaching assistant and as poetry editor for Ecotone. Their work has been published in Hayden's Ferry Review and The Shore.