It seems to me that memory and the structure of complex spiders’ webs in Gorse bushes have comparisons.
This poem was recently selected for posting on the excellent poetry and prose webzine Ink, Sweat & Tears by editor Helen Ivory. Click here to visit this website.
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Dictyna arundinacea
your web in the tips of gorse
maps the structure of memory
anchored firmly by first actions
then massed with time
to complex connectivity
now random debris mars perfection
dust clogs to sagging strands
the structure gathers holes.
Childhood threads still hold—
Dragonflies can kill if they
sting you near the heart
If Midgemadoors
fly into your hair
you have to cut them out.
Scattered random rents
cannot prevent retention
but things drop through.
You say I was in London
when told my mother died
but nothing comes to mind
look — opening at the web’s edge
a golden gorse flower unfurls
freshness that steals the eye.
‘Midgemadoor’ was the Suffolk name in my childhood for the large beetle also known as the Cockchafer, or May Bug, which emerged from the soil (or in my experience the town rubbish dump) in late May or early June
- Cockchafer beetle on a finger. Image from www.portlandbirdobs.org.uk
