"To an Enemy"

To an Enemy

Little snake, little snake,

        Hiding in the grass—

Lo, I crush thee with my heel

        As I pass!

Little snake, little snake,

        See thy slimy track—

Ah, for shame, to stab and stab

        In the back!

Just for once a woman be,

        Open fight to make—

I love an honest enemy;

        I loathe a snake.

Useless, harmless, treacherous—

        Hiss thy little time!

Thy only hope of fame can be

        Thro’ my rhyme.

A draft of "To an Enemy" on onionskin paper, courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA.

"To an Enemy" appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).