The Innocence of Lizards and Spiders

Weaving their webs,

Spiders do not reflect, do not ponder.

They do it out of naked instinct,

Casting out of their scaly bodies

Long filaments of sticky matter

Designed over millennia to catch

Fly, moth, damselfly, dragonfly—

Any living, flying thing.

Crawling along afternoon leaves and walls,

Lizards do not reflect, do not ponder.

They do what lizards do and have done

Since before the moon was pocked with stone.

Taking long breaths, flicking their tongues,

Puffing up their spectacular throats,

Lizards are.

Spider, lizard—icons of Creation’s beauty, and

Indifference.

--September 18, 2013