The Serpent Mounds of the Midwest

Connecting links and
Multiple lines
In stone and mud.
Earthen shapes
Tracing paths from
Stars to stones.
The meaning is lost
Within its riddle
(The riddle lost
Within its form).

Mysteries coiled
Like a serpent
In the sun.
Sinuous and suggestive,
Resting before it strikes.
From the snake
Came knowledge
As well as pain
(we are all united
In this single refrain).

The makers are gone
(Unknown, unmourned).
The meaning is gone
(Unknown, misread).
The culture is gone
(Unknown, quite dead).
Even the mounds
Are mostly gone
(Plowed and bled).

But nestled in
The warming earth
The snake remains.