Bison, Man-eating Spiders, Good Music, and Haikus

I do not like spiders. Not one bit. Only a few days ago, my family went out to Antelope Island to see a concert by the very talented Sierra. The venue was a little outdoor amphitheater with amazing scenery all around. Bison grazed on the grassy hillside behind Sierra, bucks with their antlers still covered in velvet passed by on nearby game trails, and the sunset over the Salt Lake as Sierra played was a gorgeous array of reds, violets, and blues. Everything was perfect…except for the giant man-eating spider hanging in its web over Sierra’s head.

Sierra out at Antelope Island with a bison grazing in the background.
Sorry about the quality of the photo, but I have a lame phone
and my hand was probably trembling because of the spider.

Ok, the spider wasn’t exactly over Sierra’s head. It was more off to one side. Way off to one side where nobody was at, if I’m being totally honest. But it was scary nonetheless and someone could have died…had they accidentally gone way out of their way to climb up a 12 foot wooden post to the web where they might have accidentally poked it long enough to get the spider mad and then it would have, well, probably run away. BUT if the spider didn’t run away, it might have viciously attacked the pole climbing person and bit them and, while I admit a bite probably wouldn’t have caused more than an upraised itchy bump, the pole climbing person might have fallen from the pole and been seriously injured or died as was most certainly that malicious spider’s plan all along. I mean, think about it, spiders make their webs to catch food, right? This is an amphitheater used by people. Why would a spider make its web there if it didn’t want to catch and eat people? So you can see why, under these perilous circumstances, I was deeply concerned for the well being of Sierra and all of her fans despite the beautiful music and scenery. (For some reason a one ton bison roaming freely nearby was less scary to me than a one ounce spider. Don’t ask me why.)

It looked a lot scarier in real life, okay.

My point here is, well, I don’t really have much of a point except to say that I have two haiku’s for you today that both involve spiders. Actually, they don’t involve spiders directly because that would be scary and gross. Instead, they involve spider webs, which are often scary, sometimes gross, but on rare occasions, truly beautiful despite the horrid creatures that construct them. I like both of these haikus because they mean something just a little bit different to me every time I read them. Here's the first one:

A delicate web

In the curl of a dead leaf

Catching only dust.

A few sketches of leaves from my journals along with random observations.
Fortunately, none of the leaves were occupied by spiders at the time I drew them.

And the second:

A strand of spider

Web stretched between blades of grass

Trembling with sunlight.

I'll have some more haikus for you tomorrow.