Tarantula by Musaemura Bonas Zimunya

Also Read

 

Such is your fate tarantula

for emerging red-claw raised between my pillows

so early in the morning to ambush my nerves

I lost my decision awhile as the space

I knew so well diminished in the search

for weapons – books, combs, and chairs.

Your hands and legs – pedipalps – bend to your face

with the pain of the spray-bursts held so long

like a fire extinguisher. How are you dead

when my ankles and my hind-arm

still echo my fears with aching burning?

Such repose, Arachnida, your unsuspecting fate

for tenderly – stealthily – endlessly searching

for prey and resting nooks in human surroundings.

Your long, hairy legs interlock

finally, stiff.