From The Immediate and No Sooner, published in 2021.
Shadorma 287
5/21/20
guessing game:
skip across the clues
steppingstones
in the stream
of logic flowing past you
going way too fast
Tanka 167
5/21/20
The muddy snake coils
a mild river yesterday.
Today its fanged mouth
bites at the land. Floods it dead.
The snake devours its trapped prey.
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
Glad I found your poetry again!
Thank you. I am glad to see you here in my world again too!
🌿💜🌿
Your snake poem makes me think of the water snake I saw resting on some logs a few days ago. I only ever seem to see them coiled up and chilling out rather than in action. I really like that metaphor of the stepping stones in the stream as a way of picking out details that resolve a puzzle.
I think snakes wait, a long time sometimes, then bam! they strike, or they move, and it is very fast. I think of rivers as snakes many times (twisty) and how they flood works in the same way, I think – very quite, and then once a certain point is reached, watch out.
Wonderful Tanka!
Thank you!