TheBanyanTree: A SPIDER’S LAST OF THE AUTUMN THREADS

[smack58 at nycap.rr.com]

A SPIDER’S LAST OF THE AUTUMN THREADS


What are you doing out there?
Shouldn’t you be dead by now?
The frost has already been here
Whitening the ground,
Yet I see your silver threads
Glinting in the sun
Across my windshield
As though you had somewhere to go.


Could it have been my warm engine
After I arrived home
Yesterday afternoon?
Did it save you from the frost?
Will you be here another day?
Will it be your last?


I will look for your silver threads tomorrow.
I will look for them everyday
Until the absence of them tells me you are finally gone.
Then, and only then
Will I know that winter is truly on its way.