The Spider's Grasp

a poem that needs a better title :P largely about wanting someone you can't have

You say your life is full of spiders now
when I ask you to explain
the rubber arthropod
dangling from your rear-view mirror.
It's her obsession
hanging there between us.
Every time I look at you
that hideous non-insect
draws my unwilling eye.
A threat, an accusation
or just a shadow?
A dull, persistent tapping--
endless rain on glass,
a dripping tap,
whispering
he belongs to someone else

Still, six hundred miles stretch before us
from Ohio to New Jersey,
winding through dismal hills
I never see
because my eyes are always on you.
Sometimes you reach
for your gas station coffee
and your fingers brush against mine.

Once, just once
we crest a hill between jagged walls of stone.
The sun slants through the clouds
illuminating
the broad river valley below,
and your hand crosses the divide
to hover above my own,
so close I can feel its heat
and then it's gone
without ever touching my skin
like the sun
as it disappears behind the clouds.
Yet the memory of warmth lingers.
I glare defiant at the spider
only to realize
she has no eyes to return my gaze.

Reviews

[Dianah]

I really enjoyed this and even though you're not sure about the title, it definately grasped me. When I was reading this it felt like a story. I could see it developing into one. I love the natural flow of words and how this spider is a reminder you are not alone with the driver.

[Chemistry]

It's sad that you had to endure the webbed walls created by the his past. It is well written and I enjoyed the poem very much. If a life described as full of spiders get the reader to wonder how many spiders it took to make the web? Interesting!