iii


a spider arches over us
so black our eyes can’t take it in
it hisses like a million snakes
which coil into us through every orifice


we’ll sacrifice anything to keep its belly high
because the sting gleams like radiant metal
and the body is full of lightless eyes


spare us we whisper take everything
take our shaken hands and our worn feet
this sweet clitoral tissue and these soft glans
take each flowering lobe of our restless minds
and these unlucky elbows and these polished shins
our sons and our daughters and their sexes take
the dreams which tickle us to new colours
and our hair full of shadows which blow
this way and that with every breeze


o how it gobbles us
but still it is hungry