Bridegroom

There's a story about a woman who takes
a snake bridegroom. Because it's a folk tale,
we are supposed to understand this is both
literal and allegorical. Somehow she has seen
beyond the length of coiled muscle and dark 
scales, the mouth decorated with fangs. It is 
others who have the venomous tongues: 
she is to them foolish virgin turned sacrifice. 
Then she tamed it, or it tamed her; or somehow 
they were, after all, good for each other— I 
don't how the story resolves or makes itself more
plain.  But isn't it true that this whole life is a beast 
we must take to our breast, the entire mystery 
of it slinking through the grass at our heels?