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# Tread
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/tread/
- Published: 2026-09-03T14:58:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-03T14:58:00.000Z
- Description: “Tread," an encounter with a murder victim in the morning hours of a Maryland Thursday, written September 03, 2026 poem 246 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: "Don't Tread on Me!" by Diana Ludwick © 2026.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Current Events, Dry Humor, Humor, Maryland, Of Place, Poems, Pun-y / Tongue-in-Cheek, Calves, Copperheads, Defiance, Deodorant, Don't Tread on Me!, Don't Tread on Thee!, Gemini AI, Home, Human Rights, Illegal, iPhone, Joke, Kill, Large Language Model, Late Summer, Newborn Season, Poisonous, Poisonous Creatures, Protect, Protected Status, September, Serpents, Silence, Slick, Snake, Squirrel, sticky tea cake, Summer, Throb, Tire Treads, Tread, Twinkie, Walk, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

Away from my home, farther each stride,  
I walk and walk and walk and walk.  
Every pore weeps with moisture;   
my face slick like the sticky bottom of a Twinkie.  
  
My calves ache at the incline;   
my soles strike damp asphalt in defiance,   
undeterred by the throb   
of overworked morning muscles.  
  
I step over a newly dead snake,   
flattened by someone’s oblivious tire treads.  
There is a metaphor, or a joke,   
though I have no one to share it with.  
  
I activate the screen on my ever-present iPhone.  
Gemini AI tells me that late August  
through early September is "newborn season"  
for local serpents, "...such as Copperheads."   
  
I am further warned by the generative large language model  
— though a little late for this pancake corpse —   
that native Maryland snakes carry protected status;  
it is illegal to kill them.  
  
"Don't tread on *thee*!"  
I exclaim to the squirrel on the road,  
unable to restrain the pun   
that was building inside me.  
  
I press on in silence,  
my mind caught between human rights,  
clinical strength deodorant,   
and laws that protect poisonous creatures.