LONDON, Ky. (AP) -- A woman who was bitten by a snake at a church that neighbors say practices serpent handling died of her wounds hours later, a newspaper reported. Linda Long, 48, was bitten Sunday at East London Holiness Church, where neighbors said the reptiles are handled as part of religious services, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Tuesday. Long died at University of Kentucky Medical Center about four hours after being bitten, authorities told the newspaper. "She said she was bitten by a snake at her church," said Lt. Ed Sizemore of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office. Handling reptiles as part of religious services is illegal in Kentucky. Snake handling is a misdemeanor and punishable by a $50 to $100 fine. Police said they had not received any reports of snake handling at the church. Snake handling is based on a passage in the Bible that says a sign of a true believer is the power to "take up serpents" without being harmed. Church officials could not be reached for comment.
Rumsfeld Quits; Bush Taps Gates for Post WASHINGTON (AP) -- After years of defending his secretary of defense, President Bush on Wednesday announced Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation within hours of the Democrats' triumph in congressional elections. Bush reached back to his father's administration to tap a former CIA director to run the Pentagon. The Iraq war was the central issue of Rumsfeld's nearly six-year tenure, and unhappiness with the war was a major element of voter dissatisfaction Tuesday - and the main impetus for his departure. Even some GOP lawmakers became critical of the war's management, and growing numbers of politicians were urging Bush to replace Rumsfeld.
TAKING UP SERPENTS
O! Your pungent veins refused to dream! They sent away the spirit and deceived the supple skin. Your serpent swims coldly past in the daylight of our minds revealing such a grandiose silhouette; your murderous, clumsy tenure; goddamned metaphor of terror!
Finished, yet not soon forgotten, your ragged breath’s gone cold. Barren and witless, you observe your own sightless prostration!
Is this the reality, that you should come to this; such venom displayed in the rising tally of `no confidence’? What of truth?
Have you left it, not to a free people, but to evaporated sins, to stepping down as mere warmonger bowed upon retirement?
O! Sir! It shall not be so happy an account that you’ve laid down, Leaving so many in harms way, bloodied, writhing on the ground!
You stand now at the alter of your own twisted, external reality; The fear ridden episodic drumbeating to aspirations of tyranny!
You leave a bent and broken man with expressions of gloom Only befitting one who claimed deaths makeshift throne!
You’ve been bitten by the venomous truth swimming near you! It swam not in you, but outside of you as ill-fated liar’s bait Which you did greedily consume with worthless deception Sacrificing charitable patriots instead of yourself!
March, sir! Stride past! Be done with it! You’ve wasted life! You’re a leper! A scud felled silent! The sacrificial lamb Laid down in the midst of discord; oils fraudulent folly, And you shall not again this way come. Amen…
Woman Fatally Bitten by Snake in Church
LONDON, Ky. (AP) -- A woman who was bitten by a snake at a church that neighbors say practices serpent handling died of her wounds hours later, a newspaper reported.
Linda Long, 48, was bitten Sunday at East London Holiness Church, where neighbors said the reptiles are handled as part of religious services, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Tuesday.
Long died at University of Kentucky Medical Center about four hours after being bitten, authorities told the newspaper.
"She said she was bitten by a snake at her church," said Lt. Ed Sizemore of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office.
Handling reptiles as part of religious services is illegal in Kentucky. Snake handling is a misdemeanor and punishable by a $50 to $100 fine.
Police said they had not received any reports of snake handling at the church.
Snake handling is based on a passage in the Bible that says a sign of a true believer is the power to "take up serpents" without being harmed.
Church officials could not be reached for comment.
Rumsfeld Quits; Bush Taps Gates for Post
WASHINGTON (AP) -- After years of defending his secretary of defense, President Bush on Wednesday announced Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation within hours of the Democrats' triumph in congressional elections. Bush reached back to his father's administration to tap a former CIA director to run the Pentagon.
The Iraq war was the central issue of Rumsfeld's nearly six-year tenure, and unhappiness with the war was a major element of voter dissatisfaction Tuesday - and the main impetus for his departure. Even some GOP lawmakers became critical of the war's management, and growing numbers of politicians were urging Bush to replace Rumsfeld.
TAKING UP SERPENTS
O! Your pungent veins refused to dream! They sent away the spirit
and deceived the supple skin. Your serpent swims coldly past
in the daylight of our minds revealing such a grandiose silhouette;
your murderous, clumsy tenure; goddamned metaphor of terror!
Finished, yet not soon forgotten, your ragged breath’s gone cold.
Barren and witless, you observe your own sightless prostration!
Is this the reality, that you should come to this; such venom
displayed in the rising tally of `no confidence’? What of truth?
Have you left it, not to a free people, but to evaporated sins,
to stepping down as mere warmonger bowed upon retirement?
O! Sir! It shall not be so happy an account that you’ve laid down,
Leaving so many in harms way, bloodied, writhing on the ground!
You stand now at the alter of your own twisted, external reality;
The fear ridden episodic drumbeating to aspirations of tyranny!
You leave a bent and broken man with expressions of gloom
Only befitting one who claimed deaths makeshift throne!
You’ve been bitten by the venomous truth swimming near you!
It swam not in you, but outside of you as ill-fated liar’s bait
Which you did greedily consume with worthless deception
Sacrificing charitable patriots instead of yourself!
March, sir! Stride past! Be done with it! You’ve wasted life!
You’re a leper! A scud felled silent! The sacrificial lamb
Laid down in the midst of discord; oils fraudulent folly,
And you shall not again this way come. Amen…
Copyright © 2006 mrp / thepoetryman