A Spider's Web (standard:poetry, 207 words)
Author: kendall thomas	Added: Dec 11 2003	Views/Reads: 3197/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
War poem

A Spider's Web 

by Jack Straw 

. 

The soldier burrowed upon his back. 

Above the spider waited in the rack*; 

. 

Over enemies concealed among the trees, 

clouds threaded among the leaves 

leaving shimmering raindrops in diamonded memories. 

Cautious now the soldier peered ahead. 

One wrong move and then you're dead. 

Something trembled, then stopped in dread; 

harpy fingers played the silent threads. 

. 

Indifferent eyes watched from a branch that swayed; 

if he had wings he too could fly away -- 

. 

If only he could lie here in eternal bliss 

he would gladly take the loss of honor's empty kiss, 

but he must rise and journey on 

though all about comrades lie cold and still and long. 

. 

The spider now has wrapped its meal 

and trips back to a border fairly well concealed. 

. 

He thought had he not been born there would be no pain, 

then a bullet cut the cord that bound his brain. 

. 

What once was loved and loving -- son, friend or lover, 

became only a lump again of cast off clay. 

. 

He fell somewhere over there 

beneath the trees 

beneath a spider's web bejeweled with raindrops 

dripping from the leaves. 

------------ 

* rack:  a cloud or vapor. 


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