My aunt was standing on the table top
while screaming out an eardrum-piercing tone.
My mum had raised aloft a dirty mop
and tried to call my father on the phone.
She yelled at us to leave the door, and moaned,
'All stay outside.' - She was in such a state
of increased female-form testosterone,
the day the snake was hiding in the grate.

Of course, we kids were too intrigued to stop.
We wished to see now, was it venom prone?
To get a better view we'd jig and hop.
We loitered 'til Mum threatened broken bone
(and waved the mop - we smelt it's yuck cologne).
If dared we'd come a step inside, our fate
to be much worse than anything we 'd known,
the day the snake was hiding in the grate.

My Dad was busy checking sheep and crop
so t'was a time before he turned up home,
and meanwhile Mum and Aunt, about to drop
from fear and near exhaustion, chaperoned.
When Dad arrived he said in undertone,
'The thing has gone beneath the house I'll rate.
No doubt it slithered underneath the stone,
for there's no snake now, hiding in the grate.'

The situation drew from us a groan.
A serpent lurked beneath in deadly wait.
Not one of us was keen to sleep alone
the day the snake was hiding in the grate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alternate ending (for the 'tease')

Our future circumstance now unbeknown -
a serpent lurked beneath in deadly wait.
What happened next would make a grown man groan,
the day the snake was hiding in the grate.
.