
Kind to a Spider
Sep 3, 2018 · 2 min read

Poem by Tim Staley
—for Sean Branson 1977–2004
See, it’ll happen like this:
when I dim the lights
she’ll unhook her safety line
so I can put her back
where she’s never been.
My drinking glass
down around her crown
as magic carpet slips
between floor, rim,
under eight limbs
until cage and foundation
are one I levitate,
sure not to be jiggling
her red hourglass
through the living room, and when
the glass ambulance lifts,
from the paper stretcher she’ll step
to the perimeter of my property
and probably, that snake
won’t eat her, and that wind,
why should it freeze?
And in this way, Sean, I wish I’d saved you
and your cat from circling your body for days
until finally she’s stuck, whiskers
hard pressed against the window.



