in a tangled web

a spider caught me in her web
oh, what a tasty fly, she said
her jaws dripped poison on my head
and I was lost

the venom shone green on my hair
my mood was dark—too many cares
but there’s no virtue in despair
my captor said

if I could wake ten thousand nights
spin spider silk to catch the light
or cared enough at all to fight
these cords would break

but sanity has fled my power
in this, the seventh hundred hour
and spider silk now lines my bower
like hanging moss

no lines can break, no death can heal
no one can see, no fingers feel
no spiders here, no one is real
there’s nothing here