Spider Legs

---

after Tommy Orange.

I would pluck the

daddy long-legs

from the peeling

yellow painted

walls placing them

in my doll house

out of rubber bands

bedazzled with glitter

I created tiny leashes

every morning for 223

days I walked my spiders

down the miniature flight

of stairs eventually

taping them down

before their escape

Spiders want me

specifically in this

two-story house

biting my legs at night

became infected with

pus coming out

the four red circles

no one else afflicted

a trap and a home

spider silk can be

broken by the wind

grief consumes my

body these bites

treated painless

not my psyche

to embark for the

journey of acceptance

this staircase does

not lead me

towards the light

instead into the dark

basement covered

in cobwebs the answer

lies in a web—a tree

is not the right

metaphor I must

now free myself

from the silky

strands that are

shielding my eyes

from being

wide-open.

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Sophia Falco is the author of Farewell Clay Dove (UnCollected Press, 2021) and of her award-winning chapbook: The Immortal Sunflower (UnCollected Press, 2019). She is the winner of the Mirabai Prize for Poetry, and she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Falco takes pride in being a dedicated volunteer blogger for The International Bipolar Foundation (IBPF) since April 2020. Furthermore, she graduated magna cum laude along with the highest honors in the Literature Department at The University of California, Santa Cruz. Her Bachelor of Arts degree is specifically in intensive literature with a creative writing concentration in poetry. Falco will be attending a highly regarded Master of Fine Arts program for poetry with a teaching fellowship in Fall 2022. This is in order to pursue her dream job of being a professor of poetry.