How A Fly Feels (Poetry)

I know how a fly feels
caught fast in sly cobwebs
no chance of release now
strong sticky ropes bind me
so all struggle seems hopeless

And yet nerves keep twitching
and testing such bondage
as though each day passing
might slacken or change how
death’s strands draw me closer...

My wings flapping useless
their colours grown duller
and vision gone hazy...
old memories sweeten
a lone thought escaping

to land on a flower
one long-ago summer
with dew on the meadow
and all the world buzzing
unacquainted with darkness.

Now the vision’s held firm
in the face of the monster —
the eight-legged demon
fear-conjured and creeping —
his bite always fatal.

The web hangs a-tremble
while sleep washes over
its kind anaesthetic
by blotting out terror
and soothing the moment
that s t  r   e    t     c      h       e        s forever.