"Once I loved a spider..."

The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly
by Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)

Once I loved a spider
When I was born a fly,
A velvet-footed spider
With a gown of rainbow-dye.
She ate my wings and gloated.
She bound me with a hair.
She drove me to her parlor
Above her winding stair.
To educate young spiders
She took me all apart.
My ghost came back to haunt her.
I saw her eat my heart.



Text from Poetry Foundation.
Bookplate from A World History of Art.