Spider Lessons for Barbara Southard

Spider Lessons 
     for Barbara Southard

I asked one of the monks
at the local buddhist center
right in front of a piece

of the original bodhi tree
how to make the little knotted

bracelets they give us
as a reminder of mindfulness.
He pulled out the string

in long draughts of three
gathering tensile

strength in a graceful
orange-robed ballet.
Suddenly I burst out

Spider Lessons! Transformed
I became--all at once--

the little, laughing spider-monk
his mummified cocooned prey
and his shimmering web

in the moonlight
anticipating the sun's dogmatic return.

But who taught the spider his craft?

Spiders don't teach
their young to weave and spin.

They give them life and tools
those that survive learn somehow.
In my vision my little spider-monk
is smiling, laughing, spinning.