possum mark kozelek
Sugar glider. Petaurus breviceps, arboreal gliding possum seats on woman hand

The Shower Spider vs. Mark Kozelek’s Possum

I had to stop the shower early

the spider I had spotted a couple of days previous was making his way, with the gait of a giant,

across the ceiling, on his way to turn the power off,

before his limbs slowed to stationary with the weight of the steam.

 

I had planned to fill the near-empty shampoo bottle with water

and enjoy one last suddy cascade

hoping it would take me from clean to feeling cleansed

 

– then I remembered that I wanted to hear Mark Kozelek

sing about the possum again –

 

I left the shower, leaving the extractor fan on

thinking that it might somehow take away the moisture

that saturated those hair-thin spider limbs

 

I listened to Mark Kozelek sing about

going to shows with his friends and the church bells and that dead possum,

wondering if the spider would live

 

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Tom Spooner

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