SPIDERS
#6
SPIDER
DREAM
A
spider’s web is hanging in our bathroom, above the sink. The spider is black, and about two inches
across. The web contains so many eggs
it’s stretching down against itself. One
of the eggs is the size of an aggie, and that’s the one that’s pulling the
whole web apart. As much as I’d like to
preserve the spider, its web, and eggs, the thought of many thousands of tiny,
newly hatched spiders is repulsive and frightening.
Scene
change:
I’m
the host at an eco-resort in the Methow valley.
(It’s Meg’s old cabin.)
Spiders’
webs hang in mid-air. Webs and spiders
are huge. The scene down the valley is
of high-altitude desert festooned with webs with guy lines that reach into the
air, and stop. The web hanging in front
of the lodge’s main deck is the same as the web that was in the bathroom of the
previous scene, only much, much larger. It has just as many black eggs, and
they’re huge as well.
An
eco-guide arrives. I can’t remember his
name, and when I ask he won’t tell me.
We discuss the size of the web, and I decide to destroy it. I go to the lodge’s basement (which is the
basement of my childhood home) for a propane torch, and bring it upstairs. Someone had left the valve open, and there’s
no propane
Guests
have started to arrive, and are chatting about the long, dry trek to get to the
lodge, and the hundreds of webs they passed along the way.
I’m
preoccupied with the web and eggs in front of the lodge and can’t focus on the
conversations. Someone says they have a
way to burn the web without my torch. As
they begin to tell me – I wake up.
RW
Seattle
3:55
AM
09.10.2019
SPIDERS
#7
ATHENA
& ARACHNE
If
there were ever
a
bitch goddess
it
was Athena
murderer
of Laocoon
and
his sons
Telamanious
made mad
Meropus
transformed
into
an owl
Iodema
into
stone
and
more…much more.
Zeus
was her father
Metis
of
crafty thought
her
mother
crafty,
but not crafty enough
Hoping
to abort any offspring
Zeus
ate her for dinner.
Too
late
Athena
conceived
in
Zeus’ splitting head
burst
in
full armor
from
between his eyes
ending
one headache
beginning
headaches eternal.
Athena
ruled everything –
or
just about
arts
and crafts
were
two
and
she was possessive.
Enter
Arachne
common
human
she
was only a shepherd’s daughter
but
her loom would be womb and doom
Fabric
artist
brilliant
vain and vocal
drew
attention
to
her work
to
herself
big
mistake.
Gray-eyed
Athena noticed
and
disguised in age
challenged
her
to
a contest.
They
wove
lost
themselves
in
warp and weft
Athena’s
yarn
telling
stories of
gods
and gifts
Arachne’s
of
rape
pain and
god-wrought
suffering
Both
fabrics illuminated
Athena
could see
hers
was the lesser –
that
could not stand
nor
could the blasphemy.
She
stopped the game
revealed
herself
turned
light to fire
destroyed
the weavings
wrapped
a spell of silk
around
Arachne’s youth
and
hung her from a branch.
Eight
skinny arms stretched out
silk
fell away
revealing
hourglass
body
swaying
by
a thread.
Stay
Athena
said
air
is your loom
Weave
Athena
said
works
to be ruined
by
rain and wind
art
to be scattered by brooms.
and
Athena
was
gone
leaving
Arachne
brood
mare to spiders
and
technicians
centered
in
her
world
wide
web.
RW
Seattle
09.13.2019
(palindrome
week)
SPIDERS #8
NO VISIBLE MEANS
Spiders
like vagrants
no visible means
suspended
in
thin
air.
Seattle/Undated
SPIDERS #9
The center
where I rest
and wait
Visible Invisible
Riding wind
riding
rain
the
ecstatic
empress
scattered
jewels
that are not mine
the wasp is mine
nourishment
for
the
deep
sleep
the
long
wait
and
my
thousand
children
born
at
the
end
of
time.
RW
Seattle/Guanajuato
October 2019
