wolf spider bite

I used to play a "tarantella" on the piano... I forget the composer (Mrs. Elledge, my piano teacher 45 years ago, would know).  I grew up in the Mendelssohn neighborhood of Edina, MN (named such by its early settlers, musicians with the Minnesota Symphony).  The tarantella has very ancient roots - it was originally an ecstatic, Dionysian dance meant to drive out the effects of a "tarantula" (actually, European black widow) spider bite.

WILD WEED

The monuments tremble in the mind

like shuddering leaves... the dun-

grey flesh of Russian

olive shoots (wild weed you find

along grey highways).  Clouds

resemble ships passing

(or sheep).  An everlasting

turtledove of new beginnings crowds

grey folds to elegant mosaic –

peacock splendor, rainbow

tarantella.  Help me now,

Ancient of Days – the mortal ache

of this wolf spider bite is like a prod

in the bull-dance arena.

I must rotate – ah,

Pocahontas handstand! – God

reward your goldfinch serenade!

Thunder & lightning speed

yon seraphim-steed

across acorn crucible (blade

pillaring smoke & fire upon hill

at Glastonbury, or

Golgotha).  Now you are

whittled down to walnut mind-rill...

pirouette... red veins of iron

rivet into diamond.

Bran-matière.  Pond-

ripple osprey, ranging (arak-golden).

7.5.16

Painting by Michael Gould (Elmer's glue & acrylic)