The Allegory of the Adolescent Spider

I had been dating

or trying to date
two-and-a-half or three women
at the same time
when I arrived at the monastery.

Filled in on my lifestyle
the myriad headaches engendered
the abbot told me the allegory
for the first but not last time
of the stupid punk-ass spider

half-toppled by visions

of self-mastery

easeful primacy

over-eager and over-confident
this spider

who gets stuck
in the web he has just spun
there to slowly perish
cursing himself exasperated
with uncontainable vehemence

though diminishingly...

surely

gradually

diminishingly...