SILVER SPRING                        
                                                 Montgomery County, MD

It's light above.  Below,
inside the red-line metro,

the evening never sheds itself for day, 
but curves into a passageway,

a universe of fang and tail.
We're lit by bulbs whose pale

florescent eyes shine on, unblinkingly. 
The third rail sibilates with electricity. 

And we—each one of us alone
—stand frozen by another sound, the drone

of trains, sidewinders sliding through   
blue corridors, steel sinews

stretched to breaking,
metallic snakes,

their scales aluminum
instead of skin.

Warm-blooded creatures don't belong
so deeply underground.  We aren't strong

enough to fight the rattlesnake,
the way it coils into wire, then slowly shakes

its body as it strikes. 
We wait.  The subway hisses like

a diamondback.
A shadow-monster slithers down the track.