The Halloween Spider

for Clara

While we paste pompomsonto construction paperwith googly eyesswirling at a glittery green,gold, and blue web, I amreminded of our fragility:how many times have Ifelt the crunch of brownor black spiders beneathmy shoe never revealingred in the smoosh? Whileher scissors slice multicoloredprosthetic legs for gluingonto an unnaturally perfectcircular body also readyfor hole-punched spots,out of dye and dust in a messof glue and glitter grows a spidershe believes fragile, alive.