A Conversation with my Pet Snake, Who I Will Buy in Two Years

Your name is Andromeda
which is supposed to mean beautiful.
I am not sure
because I learned this from a girl​

in sixth grade.
A folk tale:
The barren tree, Andromeda,
despised by Gertrude, her fruitful sister.
In the Spring, Andromeda wakes
to pulsing leaves, slick scarlet,
and Gertrude crumples
like stale cinnamon bark.
And you, Andromeda,
snake-Andromeda,
do not have a serpent sister named Gertrude,
but you do know a girl named Elise.

When was the first time
you fell in love?
Mine was that same sixth grade––no
sorry,
seventh.
I said sixth because
that’s when I met him. Spencer,
which is supposed to mean dispenser of provisions,
ha, diSpencer. Get it, Andromeda?
Anyway, Spencer

met me at school
in Ohio
when I lived
in Ohio.
Met me when he lived in Ohio.
He still lives in Ohio
but who doesn’t?
You don’t,
Andromeda.
You don’t even live,
but still I love you.
Isn’t that something
poetic?
​

Author

Elise Kelly. Elise Kelly is a junior at Simon's Rock and The Weekly Cad's President and Director of Creative Publications.