i.
A barren summer
A summer like this one
Nothing but yellow wherever you looked.
You were looking around you, baleful, hands trembling,
as we walked the yellow road to Lauren’s house.
‘Nature is dying’, you said. We walked on.
Then, for a moment, you brightened –
‘I found three spiders in my house yesterday’.
ii.
good devotion this day
in the morning
gods name be thanked.
A spider crept nere vnto me at my prayers
I sought to kill it but it escaped./
‘I am fond of Napier’, you said.
‘But this disappointed me.’
iii.
Well, here I am, still trying to read the shaky, spidery hand.
Holding on to the figure of a man
who liked the dead’s company well.
Philippa Carter
