Sign of a New Season Coming

The Dependencies
by Howard Nemerov

This morning, between two branches of a tree   

Beside the door, epeira once again

Has spun and signed his tapestry and trap.   

I test his early-warning system and

It works, he scrambles forth in sable with   

The yellow hieroglyph that no one knows   

The meaning of. And I remember now

How yesterday at dusk the nighthawks came   

Back as they do about this time each year,

Grey squadrons with the slashes white on wings   

Cruising for bugs beneath the bellied cloud.   

Now soon the monarchs will be drifting south,   

And then the geese will go, and then one day   

The little garden birds will not be here.   

See how many leaves already have

Withered and turned; a few have fallen, too.   

Change is continuous on the seamless web,   

Yet moments come like this one, when you feel   

Upon your heart a signal to attend

The definite announcement of an end

Where one thing ceases and another starts;   

When like the spider waiting on the web   

You know the intricate dependencies   

Spreading in secret through the fabric vast   

Of heaven and earth, sending their messages   

Ciphered in chemistry to all the kinds,

The whisper down the bloodstream: it is time.

garden spider