I feel cold blooded sometimes. When the wind growls in my ears and the icy air raises bumps on my skin, and when shivers pass through my body. "Someone just walked over your grave." And when I start to dream of the sun. The bright, piercing sun. It's the lie we hide from. A finger pointed, following you wherever you go. We cover ourselves with clothes and sun cream. Keeping in the shade, staying in doors. It beats down. Threatening to cut through. Can't even look at it. Arm raised, eyes squinted. It's the truth. The sun. But then sometimes I feel cold blooded. Lying on the road like that brown snake. Soaking up heat leftover from a summer's day. So lazy. Unphased by anything else. Drunk and dazed in the heat, absorbing. Drowning and desperate to feel warm. Cold body. Cold heart. Cold veins. Veins. I look to the mangled trees above me, their branches reaching out. A cobweb. Weaving between each other all reaching for the sun. If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can feel my heart beating in all of the little corners of my body. Heart beating. But you know, sometimes I feel cold blooded. Icy. Heart growling and shivers passing through me. "Someone just walked over your grave." She would always say. And then, on hot days she would sit and eat frozen oranges in the shade of a tree. Drowning in pleasure and exhaustion. Just like the brown snake lying on the road that day. Just like the brown snake. ~