Just Like Magic

It lay across the path
In patterned silence
Still as a stick
Blown down from the tree
In last week’s storm
It lay
Patches of brown and tan
Blending
Into the woodchips
Where little feet walk
Every day
Four sets of feet ran right over the top of it
Brushing it
Perhaps
Without a glance
But I looked down at the fifth pair
As they went running by and started at the sight of him
Three feet long
Lounging in the sun
He saw me jump
And we watched as his stick straight body
Bent into curves and slithered off the path
Into the grass and bushes
He slithered in a slow way
Disappearing
Inch by inch
Just like magic