Green Racer Snakes and Black Patent Leather Shoes

That emerald glint
Across the shiny black
Toe cap
In the tall grass
Under the peeling white buttress
In the slender shadow of a spire.
Arrhythmic
Fear response in one crisp
Inhalation,
A hand rushes down, instinctively
Whisking into shadow
And coming up with a twin:
Forked tongue flicking,
Licking air into lung,
And speeding across skin
Burned by the sun.