She said to draw some blood
and find a young dog to swallow it

and scrape food from the four corners
of the table
and feed it to him in the morning

Take the eye of the dog
if a wolf can’t be found
and sew it into your right sleeve

This cools the blood
like a noose lightly around
your neck

She said sometimes if you speak
the words cut from trees
before the sun has risen
no one in your family
will be bitten by snakes
Grant Clauser is the author of two poetry books, Necessary Myths (Broadkill River Press 2013) and The Trouble with Rivers (Foothills Publishing 2012). Poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Good Man Project, Painted Bride Quarterly, Southern Poetry Review, and others. He also writes about electronics, teaches poetry at random places and chases trout with a stick. His blog is www.uniambic.com