The Rattlesnakes They Keep in the Life Sciences Building Remind Me of My Dog Katie Berta (bio) Keywords Katie, Bertie, Rattlesnakes, animal, poison, danger, life and death the way they lay their chins on a rock to get a minute of rest, the way their eyesget heavily lidded as they stare off out of their tanks—but so do the dead mice (one rat) that litter their cages around noon, their little bodiescurled around some unseen center, their tiny, ratty feet with scales just likethe rattlesnakes'. There they are: mammals. Same team as me. The biggest snakeis an albino so huge his scales, when they lift from his bodyas he curves around a rock or rodent, look like big, dry flakes of oatmeal.I have trouble relating to snakes. This one, if we met him in our yard, would pumpso much poison into my dog's leg, he'd lie down, yelping, curling, like one of the mice prekilledin the tanks, onto his tummy, protecting what's left. I can't thinkof my dog dying in front of me in the yard without wanting to chop this snake to pieceswith a shovel, but when I see him here, bored, he makes me think of a dog sleeping,not dying. I had to stop watching nature shows because of this—not knowing whoto relate to—used to root for the prey not the predator butthe wolf pups die too, if they don't get anything to eat, the lion cubs, the killerwhales. Thinking this way inevitably makes you cry helplessly in the dark,the blue light of the television's vast sea, full of creatures vying for this,this thing you're doing even as you just sit here, washing over you,drowning you. Yes, inevitable is right. I know someone has to die.All of us, in fact. I just wish the dog could live. The rats too, the snake, me. [End Page 234] Katie Berta katie berta lives in Arizona where she works as the supervising editor of Hayden's Ferry Review. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, the Kenyon Review, Blackbird, The Rumpus, Sixth Finch, Redivider, Green Mountains Review, The Offing, Indiana Review, Salt Hill, and Washington Square Review, among other magazines. Her book reviews appear on Ploughshares' blog, West Branch, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. She has a PhD in poetry from Ohio University and an MFA from Arizona State. Copyright © 2021 The Massachusetts Review, Inc.