Dining room window, upper left corner

where carved cornices deflect draft,

becomes her penthouse –
prestigious, coveted address. There

amid mullioned panes, the tiny spider

wove her web – intricate as tatted lace

and beautifully symmetrical –

a glass skyscraper she occupies happily.

Her larder brims with iridescent flies.

Northern exposure
enhances her delicate complexion,

and narrow blinds filter sun.
She’s slender, long-legged, graceful,

envy of all the other spiders
until, with cloth-covered broom,
I begin spring cleaning.

Ann Howells edited Illya’s Honey for eighteen years. Her books include: Under a Lone Star (Village Books
Press), Cattlemen & Cadillacs as editor (Dallas Poets Community), So Long As We Speak Their Names (Kelsay Books), and Painting the Pinwheel Sky (Assure Press). Her chapbooks include: Black Crow in Flight, published through Main Street Rag’s 2007 competition and Softly Beating Wings, 2017 William D. Barney Competition winner (Blackbead Books). Ann’s work appears in many small press and university journals.