Brendan McMahon
Death of an Imaginary Spider
The smuggest and most partisan of spiders,
I think you always knew I was invented
by your cracked father, although it was
your love that gave me life. You liked me
for my massive vanities, outrageous jokes.
I even laughed you from the fear of death.
Although my little life is rounded by your sleep,
I'm not without a touch of immortality;
I have been here before. I am the trickster
in the story, the poem's mad ploughman,
and when I die I'm back that instant.
You grow too old for faith, and so
I'm gone. But though I've danced,
and shall dance till the stars go out,
for children numberless as suns,
you were my special one. Take care.
I think you always knew I was invented
by your cracked father, although it was
your love that gave me life. You liked me
for my massive vanities, outrageous jokes.
I even laughed you from the fear of death.
Although my little life is rounded by your sleep,
I'm not without a touch of immortality;
I have been here before. I am the trickster
in the story, the poem's mad ploughman,
and when I die I'm back that instant.
You grow too old for faith, and so
I'm gone. But though I've danced,
and shall dance till the stars go out,
for children numberless as suns,
you were my special one. Take care.
Page(s) 17
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