The Rural Carrier Stops to Kill a Nine-Foot Cottonmouth by T.R. Hummer

There is a connection between the snake in this sonnet and the carrier.  First off, a rural carrier is a mailman in the country.  A cottonmouth is a common type of snake in North America and it is a venomous snake.  They are typical in southern United States and are not a concern when it comes to the endangered animals list that the United States government has.  However, the average cottonmouth snake will grow up to two feet in length, occasionally growing up to five feet. The largest one to ever be documented was six feet long, so it seems like the nine-foot cottonmouth that is described in the sonnet is unrealistic.  There is a connection between the snake and the carrier in the sonnet, even though there is a mutual hatred between the two of them.  The carrier hates the snake so much that he shoots it twice, when it appears that one shot would have been enough.  The word 'squirm' is the word that connects the man and the snake, when "I saw the son-of-a-bitch uncoil/In the road ahead of me, uncoil and squirm/For the ditch, squirm a hell of a long time".  He talks about how sometimes, a man just hates something so much that they want to kill it, but in the end, he seems to feel the connection to the snake because "I felt my spine/Squirm suddenly".  There is the feeling of similarity between them because of the link between the living things that live on Earth.