ROSE PETAL

The heart is like a rose petal

Velvety and fragrant

So soft and thin but not brittle

That will bruise but does not tear

When grasped between thumb and forefinger

The veins will burst and bleed

Leaving no longer God’s pathways

But your fingerprint

THE LEAF

In an autumn on a windy day

In the dancing forest’s hall

A leaf was wrenched from a tree

Before t’was meant to fall

Its borders had darkened crimson

But its veins throbbed yet with green

And the life that was within it still

Stumbled to the realm terrene

A fragment from a broken soul

That had started in a tree

Blew about the blustering world

And it found its way to me

BUGS

Bugs are inevitable

They crawl on many feet

They dance with a thousand legs

Bugs will always be there

Inside and outside

Whether you like them

Whether you don’t

Under a rug, behind the bark

Some bite

Others dwell passively in a corner

Living and dying while you look way

Never knowing it was there

Some sting

Bugs

Some fly, some crawl

Why are they even here at all?

For all the kittens and puppies and children

Who have neither a string nor a ball.

JUMPING SPIDER

(Pelegrina Proterva)

Once when I was sitting on a bench to read a book,

A spider came and sat himself beside me

I wouldn’t have noticed him but he had a look

That seemed as if he could see right inside me.

See, spiders don’t behave like this

Nursery rhymes aside

If they ever notice you they normally run or hide

(or just sit there hoping you actually see them),

But this one came to sit with me and looked into my eyes

Then jumped into my lap and began to climb.

He had such a sense of urgency it seemed a shame to me

Not to help achieve his goal, whatever that might be,

So I offered him my hand

And he seemed quite pleased to have it,

For jumped into my palm as if it were a habit.

After that, he turned around and looked at me again,

All I think he really wanted was to find a friend

“That was dangerous,” I cautioned him.

“If it were anyone but me,

You would have long ago been squashed! And it seems a funny thing

To risk a life just to make a friend

Which I might not even be.”

The little spider cocked his head, just like my dog at home

“Well, of course I am, but still, you can’t be all alone,

Of all the places in the world, which you are free to prowl,

Why not be with another spider instead of me right now?

Or if jumping spiders are solitary,

Which I think they are,

Then why go against your nature

Which has led you so far?”

And the jumping spider looked at me

And so I just looked back

We sat like that a little while,

And delved into each other’s eyes.

It didn’t take long before I began to have the suspicion

That though he was a spider

He could still enjoy good fiction,

So I read to him from my book,

(It was Sherlock Holmes).

I don’t know how much he understood

But he must have liked the tones,

Because he stuck around

Until the book was done.

Then I set him on the bench

Where this had all begun.

I said goodbye and took my leave,

I think I left him glad,

Though I never saw him again,

I often I wish I had.

Maybe what he did was dangerous,

But I think it was good.

We may have fewer enemies

If we greet with amiability

Instead of animosity.