wolf spider clings to a plastic pineapple
hunts her crunchy crickets, ebony dots
bobbing in an azure sea of chlorinated cool
reflecting a cloudless Oklahoma sky
chlorophyll dreams long forsaken, baked in the sun
fake fruit crown glistening, simulacrum’s royal laurel
while spider-mother waits, regal and patient, unattended,
for the insect prayers to arrive on the breeze
ripples reach Anansi’s daughter, echos of joy
whispering Nyame’s secrets – infinite expanding
“I created death and death killed me – vulturous trickster”
unleashed upon Asase Efua’s lush earth
chlorine veil cannot shroud her memory-map
the spider’s legs sketch glyphs across mimicked rind
summoning ancestors from sidewalk cracks
and deities from drainage ditches
even here
in suburbia’s blue-mirrored stillness
the old stories web and tighten—
a huntress spins the present into prophecy
during the season’s last swim towards the fall
This poem was created for a dVerse Poetics Prompt on Microseasons. Please join us!

OH MY! Your poem is chock full of so many wonderful, descriptive words! A joy to read!!
The juxtaposition between nature and manmade works so well for me… a plastic pineaple and the spider trying to cope in suburbia.
This is so beautifully written. I can see that patient spider under the far-reaching Oklahom sky. Beautifully done.
Your title is unique, another favourite of mine from this prompt, Anna, and your poem fulfilled my expectations. I love the phrase ‘hunts her crunchy crickets’ (crunchy words!), the thought of ‘baked in the sun fake fruit crown glistening’, the reference to the Anansi myth, and these lines especially:
‘even herein suburbia’s blue-mirrored stillnessthe old stories web and tighten—a huntress spins the present into prophecyduring the season’s last swim towards the fall’.
I floated through this poem as if in a dream, Anna. I especially liked
the spider’s legs sketch glyphs across mimicked rind
summoning ancestors from sidewalk cracks
and deities from drainage ditches
— and the collocation of myth and imagery that led up to this dance, this moment. So evocatively written.
What an interesting title and what a lovely write!
Strikingly and visually so good. The imagery of the spider and the texture within your writing really makes the brain think and go in varies directions.