outside my door
strung from the light
to the bottom of
the second landing
is a massive spiderweb

the first morning
i met my new neighbor
i stood
quite still
in mid motion of
locking the door
as henrietta
a frightfully large spider
sat staring at me
attentively
perhaps a bit too
attentively
as if sizing me up
for a nice web cocoon
to be drained
at her leisure
which
regrettably
i found myself to be
wholly against
so i did what any potential
prey should do
i kindly introduced myself
acknowledged her
and her glorious web
and offered a
gentlemanly agreement
from the light
to the bottom of
the second landing
was her domain
locked the door
only dropping the keys once
which is a marked improvement
over most mornings
perhaps i was hoping
to impress upon her
my ill suitability
for more than
casual acquaintances
who don’t liquefy
each others internal organs
as a smoothie

it is a win/win
i don’t decorate for
halloween
and she gets an open path
for whatever it is
i see squirming
as she sits majestically
in the center of her web
and when i get home
she is huddled close
to the landing
dreaming spidery dreams
as spiders
it seems to me
are wont to do

i even made a sign
and with a little help
online made it bilingual
that henrietta
is our friend and to
please watch her web
i don’t have
a lot of friends
and she seems nice enough
in her spidery way

i already fear
the morning she isn’t there
for two
quite important reasons

one being
it is hard
to lose a friend
a neighbor you see
every single day

and two being
maybe she decided
i had fattened up enough
to be her motherhaul
for the coming winter

we get to choose
the delusions that make
navigating friendships
or life itself
somewhat bearable
i am friends with
a rather large
and semi terrifying
mistress of silken wonders
named henrietta
even if she doesn’t
know it herself
and the constant fear
is free cardio
so it already
is paying dividends