She wore thick leggings
our childhood polio albatross
mass Sabin vaccine sauce
body snatcher ritual
fixed beautiful legs.
(In early elementary school she wore braces most of the way through 6th grade. We all went to the nearby JHS to drink the approved Sabin vaccine. By 7th grade she had healed. She had beautiful, working legs.) She has recently, physically passed. This is in remembrance of her.)
A black widow spider spins a silk thread
into a near-transparent dream catcher;
filling her with joy, and her meals with dread.
A very cunning, deadly flycatcher
ready to pounce and mummify her food:
she lies in wait, like a body snatcher.
Any damaged web gets quickly renewed
with her sticky silk, resetting her trap:
so, struggling insects remain firmly glued.
She secures victims in a woven wrap:
ensuring they remain alive and fresh
until she sups: draining them of their sap.
Liquefying bugs, entangled in mesh:
she flaunts a scarlet hourglass belly patch
and fangs that inject poison into flesh.
Males must escape as soon as they detach,
for to this femme fatale, they're a fair catch.
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