The Rule for Spiders
All spiders are basically good.
Or, only certain spiders
can be trusted. What’s the rule.
For remembering which
spiders mean to do you harm,
what do their bellies
look like. Are they marked
with an hourglass,
a stripe or spot. Which ones
eat other bugs for you,
pitching in, gobbling up gnats
as a gift. Do they worry
when they don’t make productivity
for the month. Can
spiders even worry, or any animals
other than humans.
Are there neurotic daddy longlegs,
manic tarantulas,
what does today’s web mean.
Like every nesting,
hungry creature, spiders fear us.
How to hold onto
that when one lowers onto the arm
of the sofa from
the lamp, sensing no threat.
Nice work. To the Native Americans spiders are the animal totem of writers (get it?). It's funny to me how people are afraid of what they do just hanging around but are fascinated when they do their job of entrapping and eating in their webs.
ReplyDeletePS--You were right about Hudgins, he's very concerned with the effect of the sound of language. I like poems like "In" where he contemplates the instant heaven of children.
my daughter called me into the bathrooom the other night, a spider behind the bathroom tissue. we managed to find another roll and let him be until my son, who is the bravest of us, could retrieve him and walk him outside. are there rules for everything? god damn. (i laugh now because killing him never occurred to me.)))
ReplyDeletexo
erin
Spiders in the house are good luck.
ReplyDeleteI loved the part about productivity. Whenever I see a lot spiders, I see a lot of bugs, too...
ReplyDelete