The mother tells the small boy,
We are all going to die someday.

He says, I'm not going to die.
The candy is sweet, the car seat hot,

and nothing can keep the small boy
from thinking he will live forever.

His brother says, I'll probably die
before you because I'm older.

The mother says nothing.  At home
the small boy draws snakes.  He tries

to draw a worm, but it turns into
another snake.  The small boy draws

a snake map for his mother.  It shows
how the snake looks-his spots, his

forked tongue-and where in the grass
he lives.  The mother says, But what if

the snake moved?  You'd have to draw
a new map.  The child thinks about this.

He draws trains instead.  After a storm
the small boy draws a train on fire

with jagged blue clouds and squiggles
of orange lightning.  He tells his mother

that lightning caught the train on fire.
The next day he draws two flowers,

one orange and blue, the other
all green.  This one is dead, he says.