Of Spiders and Saints

Today there is only this spider to consider,

And I do, watching it manage to somehow

Not stumble over all its legs, wondering why

It needs so many as it strides up the wall

And across and down again, not finding

A place yet for the web it will no doubt make

In the shadow where the wall meets ceiling,

Likely wasting its time, it being January

And all the heedless moths and flies have

Already blundered into their own deaths.

 

Now it comes to the window, hesitating,

Testing the deep gray light with one leg

As if it might be water, then steps into it

And seems to disappear under the waves

Of rain inundating the other side, thunder

And in the gutters a sound like sea-surge,

A Moth husk caught in a web of sill-dust,

Life, death, hunger and something like faith.

I think of Saint Veronica, who ate nothing

But spiders.  It's an eat or be eaten world.





Poetry by countryfog
Read 418 times
Written on 2012-01-24 at 19:25

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I lived in Florida for a short time and right outside the door of my apartment two humongous spiders spun two humongous webs that extended from the building to some nearby trees. Their legs were 5 times as long as their bodies, but as fragile and minute as filiments. Their bodies, fattened by their prey, were extended and gleamed irridescent in the sunlight. If I tossed a twig into the web, the spiders would promptly dislodge it and repair the damages. Their intelligence was unnerving. They meant business.
2012-01-29


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
I wrote a poem a while back called "A Little Poem About Almost Nothing." That's what this is, but it's a very pleasant, well-written meditation.
2012-01-27



I think of spiders as long-suffering, patient beyond words, helpless, or hapless, as your spider in winter. I have a fondness for spiders and snakes which most people think creepy, but they're more like us than not. Maybe that comes from reading Charlotte's Web at an impressionable age. As for snakes, that comes from experience, they can be charming (ha ha).

I think Saint V might have spared the spiders and gone with bread or granola bars, though one does need protein.
2012-01-25