The Widows Hour
I.
A black widow hides
the hour’s count, in a painted
red glass, on the underside
of her belly.
II.
Unlike a snow white kitten,
the hard shiny black widow
receives not one loving caress.
III.
In the pale moonlight the black widow spins a silver web.
It created a growing and binding spell-like enchantment.
IV.
A man and a woman
are dancing through time.
A man and a woman and a black widow
are dancing through time.
V.
I do not know which I prefer,
Us making love by a sizzling fire
Or us making love on the cold wet sand,
the black widow scurrying across the beach
Or the moment we met.
VI.
A web repaired a broken window
with finely spun silk.
The shadow of the black widow
remains hidden from view.
The silence
hanging in the web
spoke a thousand words.
VII.
Descendants of Adam,
Why do you fear this little spider so?
Do you not see how the black widow
splashes and plays in her bath
as naturally as the child within you?
VIII.
I know that I know nothing
and I remember everything all at once;
I know, as well,
that the black widow does not worry
about what I know.
IX.
Dark spaces harbor the black widow.
Shake out your shoes,
shirts, and jackets after they’ve been on the floor.
X.
The black widow’s shadow
encloses the stars like an eclipse,
even I cannot overlook a
cosmic event as rare as this.
XI.
She walked across the Nile
in crystal slippers.
Escaping, she never looked back
over her ivory shoulder,
the black widow’s shrill song flies
through the wind and echoes on the water.
XII.
Grains of sand are filling the glass slowly.
The black widow must be endlessly dreaming.
XIII.
The sun beat down while it rained.
I was not moving
and I was not going to move.
In the peak of the thirteenth hour
the black widow traced circles,
after kissing me lightly on the
back of my hand.
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