Beware: Rattlesnakes

Originally uploaded by miss_distance

Seriously. If you tripped on a frozen rattlesnake this time of year, you might slip and tumble off a mud-slickened butte and hurt yourself! The great poet Rumi has a poem that warns about frozen snakes: a stupid man goes into the mountains and brings back a “petrified dragon” — he sets up his tent in the city, charging admission to see it. Only — whoops! Not petrified, just torpid and sleeping. The giant hibernating serpent wakes up and destroys everyone. The moral of Rumi’s poem is quite clear: let sleeping snakes lie.