Spider

In the shadows, in the bushes, in the space between the leaves

A spider in a thicket crawled up on my knee

I put my gloves on, put my hat on, and I ran from the trees

But that little black spider came a crawling after me

From the shadows in the bushes, in the space between the leaves

A little black spider came a crawling home with me

It crawled across my window as I lay me down to sleep

In the morning on my pillow it waited patiently

And then came the ants, the frogs and the snakes

Slithering and sliding through my clean white sheets

Rustling from the bushes, creeping from the leaves

Every awful creature came a crawling over me

I crushed them and killed them, but they came all the more

So I ran in my nightshirt out onto the lawn

But I tripped up on a tree root and they swarmed from the weeds

A million little teeth tore me to pieces

In the shadows of the thicket rain poured through the leaves

And I was scattered in the mud beneath the dripping trees

But from here and from there, from every direction

Little voices sang under twigs and mosses

And I swarmed and I gathered under logs and leaves

I crawled and I slithered under rotting trees

In the tangle of the bushes, underneath the wet leaves

I am many and nothing and I crawl up on your knee