Cottonmouth Country

"Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras. And there were other signs That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us By land: among the pines An uncurled cottonmouth that rolled on moss Reared in the polluted air." I found that Hatteras is an island off of the coast of North Carolina and as a part of nature dead fish will sometimes wash up on beaches which would explain the first line about fish bones. I did research on the author Louise Gluck and found that she often has poems about dark subjects such as death. The line about death wooing "us" is perhaps referring to that the ocean's tide can be dangerous and the uncurled cottonmouth is also a sign of death because a cottonmouth is a venomous snake often found in the southeastern swamps of the United States. They are also called water moccasins. I thought the line in which it mentions polluted air could be another sign of Death.
The next part though, "Birth, not death, is the hard loss. I know. I also left a skin there." Might refer to losing something dear to you, that you once had as a child, like innocence or ignorance. I thought it could also refer to losing a child or when a child grows up and starts there own life. I'm not really sure what that line means. The part about leaving a skin there I believe is referring to the snake again since snake's will shed away a layer of skin periodically so she is saying she left a skin of her own there but not literally.