Dan Stryk

When Spiders Come Inside

Strange how the rare moment of threat or ugliness
in nature is inevitably man-induced, and then, by
him, perceived...
                            — Thoreau’s Journals

Such visionary dangling
      from its strand of
          pearl-bright filament
  
today in the sunlit
      woods: a tiny cruciform
          with glowing spots

 along deep sable fur
      forgiving all our
          lives, like Eden's

proffered grace.  The same
      black savage fur that
          scurried, humped

& stark (as I watched
      helpless from the tub
          today) over slick

tiles of our bathroom
      floor,
               and vanished
        like an insult,

a Bosch demon, into damp
      cracks, peeling darkly,
          in our lower wall...