Spiderwebs in the Back yard, 5:00 a.m.
by Alice Campbell Romano
Vermillion bougainvillea drops a deep,
soft-misted swag down half the garden wall.
I’ve been away. Last night, I couldn’t sleep.
It’s barely light, and I’m outside—to call
on spiderwebs pearled in dew, to admire
the tension of spun gossamer, steel strings
racked against red bracts by diligent wives
I don’t see. Swings upon purposeful swings,
they build webs to survive—and eat the mate.
I see a spider—she begins her snare,
dangles at the end of the first innate
filament, takes momentum from the air--
prepares to rise, to cast the next tense strand.
Does she know now how it can all unwind?
soft-misted swag down half the garden wall.
I’ve been away. Last night, I couldn’t sleep.
It’s barely light, and I’m outside—to call
on spiderwebs pearled in dew, to admire
the tension of spun gossamer, steel strings
racked against red bracts by diligent wives
I don’t see. Swings upon purposeful swings,
they build webs to survive—and eat the mate.
I see a spider—she begins her snare,
dangles at the end of the first innate
filament, takes momentum from the air--
prepares to rise, to cast the next tense strand.
Does she know now how it can all unwind?
Alice Campbell Romano, a child of the Hudson Highlands, lived 13 years in Rome, script-doctoring Italian movie scripts. She married a dashing, movie-business Italian. They moved to Los Angeles, raised children, and built stuff. Alice’s poems appear in print, online, and anthologized. Her chapbook, The Consolation of Geometry, was one of only three honorable mentions in The Comstock Review Chapbook 2022 contest. Aside from love of certain humans, the best Alice feels is when wrestling a line of poetry.