chinese finger-trap

the greatest trick a cobweb ever played

was to fool the fly into

thinking it was fragile, then

throw its silken weight against the last

frantic movements, a pall to ease

the burying of wings.

and deliver us from nada*

down the stairs out the door step

carefully around thawing ice and wet 

snow these shoes have no tread around the corner

past the delicatessen you have been avoiding

the man there who asks you to go dancing and says

he misses you when you don’t go in

for a week or more the roaring traffic

stops at the light on the freeway under the over-

pass the chain-link bridge where you stand like a rock

watching rapid water rush in opposite directions semi-trucks

buses       luxury suvs      speed finally freed from the flood

that broke the dam and the water is only ten feet

away from the backyard fence where the septic tank is overflowing

and there’s no hot water anymore so you gotta run

make it past the church with the looming steeple where she goes

to pray does she ever pray for you

your doomed soul shouts birth control

and gets lost in those rural county roads that wind

the ten thousand lakes and german towns now skip

in step and listen to the music grind the batteries low

maybe you’ll see someone you know waving down the 6d

to the trendy side of town only seven minutes

before the alarm goes off again

*Title taken from A Clean, Well Lighted Place.  Hemingway, Ernest.