Amy Jean Porter

Monument to a Lost Snake/Last Snake

2020, ink on paper and cardboard, various dimensions, approx. 10ft. overall

The eastern ribbon snake lives along the edges of water. In Connecticut they’re found in patches in the Central Lowlands—the sliver we live in, too, the sliver we’re in now—from New Haven up through Hartford and to Massachusetts. Ribbon snakes are found in wetlands near trap rock, created by lava oozing up through fault lines millions of years ago. They are among Connecticut’s earliest emerging snakes in spring and females give birth in summer to a dozen live baby snakes. I’ve seen them on occasion, in a wet ditch by a soccer field, moving fast like the shadow of an airplane, slipping into tall grass. The ribbon snake is endangered in Connecticut, mainly due to habitat loss. What language, what knowledge is left for us, what symbols to decipher?