Humanist Voices in Verse: The Talking Snake by Daniel Mullane

This week’s featured poem is by Daniel Mullane. He and his wife Sharon retired in 2005 and left the San Francisco Bay area to see the United States by travel trailer. They are currently in Houston, Texas to attend the wedding of their daughter.

If you’d like to contribute original poetry to Humanist Voices in Verse, write to hnn@americanhumanist.org with “Poetry” in the subject line. Please send no more than three poems for consideration per week.

 

 

 

The Talking Snake

 

When I was just a lad of ten,

I asked my mother way back then,

How a snake could talk to Eve,

And what it was mom did believe,

 

For it seemed to me that snakes can’t talk,

And snakes can’t sing and snakes can’t walk,

Mom said, “It’s just a fairy tale,”

Like Jonah swallowed by the whale,

 

But people do believe, it’s sad,

They’re not aware they’re being had,

Believe, believe, they question not,

Thinking that in Hell they’ll rot,

 

So when you’re told of a virgin birth,

And snakes that talk, for what it’s worth,

They’re stories born of simple minds,

Encouraged by the tithes that bind,

 

And should you hear what seems a myth,

Be thankful for the brain you’re with,

Knowing as you walk around,

There’s no such thing a holy ground,

 

Believers need a helping hand,

So on their wobbly feet they’ll stand,

When Sister Ruth proclaims, “It’s true,”

Simply smile and say, “I knew it too.”

 

— Daniel Mullane