Snakes on a Poem

Filmmaker Andreas Mendritzki scored $10,000 for a short film he made using the poem "Fear of Snakes" by Lorna Crozier. The prize came from the The Poetry Foundation (who else has money these days?) and Facets Multi-Media. There are a couple stills from the film alongside a story in The Observer. I have no idea how or where one can see the film, but you can read the poem below.

Fear of Snakes

The snake can separate itself
from its shadow, move on ribbons of light,
taste the air, the morning and the evening,
the darkness at the heart of things. I remember
when my fear of snakes left for good,
it fell behind me like an old skin. In Swift Current
the boys found a huge snake and chased me
down the alleys, Larry Moen carrying it like a green torch,
the others yelling, Drop it down her back, my terror
of it sliding in the runnell of my spine (Larry,
the one who touched the inside of my legs on the swing,
an older boy we knew we shouldn't get close to
with our little dresses, our soft skin), my brother
saying Let her go, and I crouched behind the caraganas,
watched Larry nail the snake to a telephone pole.
It twisted on twin points of light, unable to crawl
out of its pain, its mouth opening, the red
tongue tasting its own terror, I loved it then,
that snake. The boys standing there with their stupid hands
dangling from their wrists, the beautiful green
mouth opening, a terrible dark O
no one could hear.

(Lorna Crozier, from Everything Arrives at the Light, 1995 McClelland & Stewart)