I was out walking early one morning, when I spied a beautimous spider web, with the dew drops seeming to gather and magnify the light of the early morning sun. Today, my muse visited me, my imagination took off, and here is the result:
As I walked along one morn,
I spied a work of art
Delicately spun by canascent arms
In the wee hours of the morning,
Before the sun arose
And displayed the glory of the work.
In the center of the shining drops
Sat the creator, squat and dour.
As diamonds do the dewdrops shine!
Their brilliance dripping from the strands,
And I could imagine some wood nymph,
With delicate fingers plied the web from its perch
With high laughter and many thanks.
Casting the many strands about her slender neck
And resting upon her delicate bosom,
She dances through the dark hours with her friends,
Similarly arrayed.
Arachne’s offspring waits impatiently
As the nymphs play in the moonlight,
With diamond-like strands draped over flowing locks,
Or fastened about slender waists,
The wood-nymph eyes shining brightly,
Their laughter and grace filling the wood.
Their graceful feet brush the grass
And slender arms raised in revelry.
As they dance, their eyes, like their borrowed jewels flash
Under the gentle glow of Selene’s chariot
As she makes her way across the sky
To her sleeping lover, Endymion,
And the nymphs laugh and sing the darkness away,
With musical voices beyond man’s ken
Issuing forth from their red lips.
As Selene’s glow fades, Apollo’s work begins,
And the wood nymph rushes
To return the borrowed finery.
With hushed tones she again extends thanks
To the creator of her borrowed jewels,
Who glares at her with many eyes.
The wood nymph carefully hangs the web,
Every strand complete, every drop still intact,
And blowing kisses at Arachne’s daughter,
Disappears like a vapor in the morning breeze,
And Apollo’s burning chariot removes the glistening dew,
And the magic of the night sleeps, waiting,
While Arachne’s daughter faces Apollo’s glow.