I gasped when I saw your body on the stucco wall
A small shock of terror
like when I saw a shark for the first time and suddenly became aware of things greater than myself
I wanted to know everything about you immediately
How you go days without breathing
How you bond yourself effortlessly to surfaces
How you play dead
Clever girl
What a trick that was
I thought I had killed you by accident
when I slipped the thin edge of a paper plate under your two longest legs
And you tumbled back
All eight limbs curling inward
Around your abdomen and
that terrible mark somebody scored there
and you don’t even know about it
The smart thing to do would have been to crush you against the rock
But I could not bear the weight of losing your spider shape in the universe as I see it
So I carried you to my garden
and pretended you could unknow me as I could unknow you
No stubby nails or wrinkled skin
No bulbous belly or ducts of venom
Just two great bodies touching briefly
as you unfolded the sharp points of your grace once again
to walk without urgency into my rose bushes
Sobriety Poet 