I walked through this spider’s web last night while dragging the trash can to the alley. Well, not this web specifically, but I’ll get to that. The exotic-looking-for-Maryland spider swiftly rappelled to safety as I looked on, leaving me both a little freaked out by the sticky surprise and rather crushed to have destroyed something so complex and painstakingly built.

Or so I thought. This morning the web was back, bigger and better than before. Its anchors spanned the back patio–probably six feet–from tree to grill to fence column, the web floating parallel to the ground at about chest level. How could this nickel-sized creature, alone in the dark, have done such work? Life is a wonderland indeed.

Thus inspired, in a bit of reverse poetry I went in the house and made some cottage cheese.