Rattlesnake Dance

Have you ever seen two rattlesnakes dance.

I did the other day.

Walking upright, three feet tall, their lower thirds intertwined.

Like synchronized dancers, they swayed in rhythm.

Each grotesque contortion of one echoed the other.

Suddenly, fangs bared, they attacked their partner.

Then collapsed in a coil on the grass, squirming, writhing, balled up.

I approached for a closer look.

Unraveling, they stood upright, almost on their tails.

"May I dance with you," I thought I heard one say to the other.

"Certainly, darling," I think she answered as I stumbled in retreat.

Was this a mating ritual? Were they lovers?

It went on for many minutes.

We caught it on video and watched it again later.

The film showed them in perfect harmony, each movement by one anticipated by the other as if choreographed for Broadway.