An aggressive sun over Tucson warms scales as they slide by, shadow to shadow, crevice to crevice. Practiced muscles pull pendulous coils along. This way and that turns the angular head, a marvel of biologic engineering, sleek yet expansive when needed.

Dry and still, the air tastes of dust with a hint of mustiness, a tantalizing tinge upon a serpentine palate. All around heat, bakes the earth, but ahead and to the right rests an exception, a glob of caloric anomoly. Tufts of sound send happy greeting and invitation for predation, a scritch and a scratch, a nervous pitter-pat.

Layer upon layer of delicately armored flesh coils beneath as venom oozes in preparation, wetting a dry mouth, teasing a whetted appetite. Chambered tail slides silently along, no threat to utter for the soon to be meal. Surprise is the order of the day, a side dish of rodent.

Unfurling like lightning, the body sends a gaping maw forward, fangs at the ready. The mammal dies. The reptile lives.

Life in the desert goes on.