Dasypeltis scabra wraps
her lips around a plover’s egg,
jaw unhinged, toothless,
swallowing another mother’s
unhatched chick whole.

The egg slips down the
slick channel of her throat,
an apathetic anti-birth,
a clench and a crack,
she sucks out the yolk
and spits away the empty shell,
never stopping to wonder if
she might wake one day
to find someone has slunk
into her nest and swallowed
the eggs of her own belly
when she was not looking.

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