Cool Off Companions

On my brother-in-law’s farm
Up in the mountains
Of central Italy,
We had worn ourselves out
In the hot summer sun
Doing a hazelnut roundup,
So we decided to cool off
By taking a dip
In an adjacent concrete
Irrigation channel.
We would jump into
The swift current
And float down
To a bridge
Where we could
Climb out.
After we made
A couple passes,
We noticed that
We were not alone.
As we watched
The current flow
Where we had
Just finished swimming,
We noticed several
Rather large vipers
Swimming along as well.
The bulbous heads
On those serpents
Indicated they were
Probably extremely venomous,
And we were just lucky
We didn’t encounter one
While we were in the water.
The refreshingly cool waters
Of the canal
Were evidently
Equally as inviting to them
As they were to us.
Needless to say,
That put a damper
On our channel activities.