The Serpent and the Moonrise

In the hour when the full moon first clears the treetops, the great cobra uncoils. This they have always known in Vrindavan. On this particular night, a man held the serpent’s neck in his hand, not to kill it, but to keep it close. The woman beside him did not flinch. She had grown up knowing that the serpent is not the enemy of love. It is its guardian. Every couple in the forest had one, invisible most of the time, but present always, coiled around the roots of whatever they had built together, keeping it safe from the things that creep in when people stop paying attention.

Object number

012.05.016