The Ritual
Classic rock crackles around a half-lit room,
scent of sweat exhaled by thick cotton
work shirts, denim salted with cigarette breath.
The bar’s low lights shiver on the skin
of his black leather coat. I linger
on the small god tapping at his chest.
He smiles, as if he’s seen a door cracked
open just enough to slide through.
“Are you a believer?” But I’m not
here to speak; only to sip my drink slowly,
listen to the ice give way in the glass.
I shake my head, knowing any answer
will be caught by the teeth of that grin.
He knows, too – so he leans easily into me
to whisper, “That’s alright, honey.
I clocked you lost the moment you walked in.”
Setae
Bright shock of cool
ceramic on bare feet
brush nerves each night
I shudder from dream
to need; bladder tapping
the thin walls of my neural theater:
“Um, excuse me –”
my bed’s metallic squeak,
graceless footfalls folding
into the dark’s thick warmth.
White seat, sound of a
small stream, open window
but no breeze. In my tilted view,
under a corner drawer’s edge,
a common house spider
furiously kicks and falls back,
kicks and falls back,
toward and away from
this evening’s meal –
brown, spindly legs
turning, wrapping
threads of white web
around a body writhing.
Entranced, I scratch the skin
of my ankle – tiny, stiff hairs mark
a second day’s growth.
The spider stills,
tiny hairs on its legs
bristle.
Elegy for Ernest
A brown dotted body
with eight lean legs
hid behind a corner
of my old tea tin pencil holder,
like a toddler waiting
to be welcomed in
by a working mother.
No bigger than
the smallest pink eraser,
I watched his quick movements
as he flickered across
my morning station:
testing the edge
of a coffee-kissed hardcover,
stoic at a BIC cap’s peak,
seized by the sight of a bright
blue lamp, and finally,
basking in the heat offered
beneath its floral shade –
each point of exploration
connected by a thread
so lithe it leaned up
(even spiders need safety lines,
it seems). For a few days,
this cheap metal desk
was Antarctica to an
arachnid Shackleton,
who then returned
to the circle of light,
curled his little legs inward,
and fell asleep in the snow.