Produced by Dennis Camire

This week’s poem is by former Maine poet laureate Betsy Sholl. The poem originally appeared in “The Cafe Review.”

Elegy With Spiders

For Michael Macklin

By Betsy Sholl

Six months after you died, spiders fill the field,

gleaming in early sun,

having spun all night their bright God’s-eyes,

those faceted gems, airy prisms

beaming the day’s first light from stalk to stalk —

which soon the farmer will plow under, yes,

and three rowdy shepherds will tear through

like hell hounds wanting to be fed,

but still these spiders turn night’s fog

on their glittery looms, making

and remaking — as you would have said —

casting lines through invisible air.

Dennis Camire can be reached at dcamire@cmcc.edu