"Snakes. Why Did It Have to be Snakes?"

Happy New Year, everyone. It's already 2025 here in Japan, Year of the Snake. This is usually the time I post my top movies of the year list but I'm going to wait until I've seen a few more.

It occurred to me some of you may be wondering why I didn't say anything about Jimmy Carter's death. I find myself better able to discuss Olivia Hussey than Jimmy Carter. I was born in 1979, so right in the middle of his single term as president but obviously I can't say exactly how his presidency affected me in those couple years. When I was a kid, all I remember hearing was what a terrible, ineffectual president he was and how we needed Reagan to come in and whip the country into shape. He certainly seems to have been a nice man and I'm aware of his many charitable efforts. I remember Ben Affleck's Argo arguing that he was a better president than was generally believed but I don't know if that's anything more than retroactive propaganda. The point is, I don't really know, so I don't have anything cogent to say about Carter.

Anyway. Enjoy the snakes.

X Sonnet #1909
Year of the Snake

Now strike the drum and call the souls to hear.
As clouds, the dragon passed as night's awake.
The vanished sun condemns the tired year.
A smaller serpent shall usurp the drake.
As cool and shaded leaves then clothed the trees,
The garden throbbed with blind and deafened life.
No congress there discoursed but father sees.
A fatal leaf was like a sharpened knife.
Her steps can still be heard between the roots.
The cunning snake had led her searching forth.
Inside her anxious mind the creature roots.
The second bite provokes a third and fourth.
Discarded fruit will plainly show the win.
The Devil takes his loyal serpent's skin.