In the corner of the kitchen window,
a crane fly is caught in a spiderweb.
It has not stopped struggling
all afternoon. Every few seconds,
it stills its wings
& the spider slips toward it. Then
it crashes its body about, sending
the spider scurrying. This
has been going on
for hours—the crane fly thrashing,
the spider shuffling back & forth
like the shuttle of a loom.
To eat, of course, all the spider must do
is wait. But with all that flesh
at the edge of the web, how
could it not be tempted forward?
Patrick Kindig is the author of the poetry collection fascinations (Finishing Line), the chapbook all the catholic gods (Seven Kitchens), and the academic monograph Fascination: Trance, En-chantment, and American Modernity (LSU).
Photo by Anthony Ievlev on Unsplash
