
Laura Tuthall
Showering with Spiders (2013)
are you bored
by these borders?
are you sore
from getting seeds stuck in your throat,
choking on their potential?
sacrifice that synthesized
illusion of alone
for just a moment in the searchlight
I’ll fry you up
some freedom of your own
just stop showering with spiders
‘til you’re numb
it’s no way to get clean
you gotta get rid of the clamoring
whether it’s true or not
‘cause clocks just tick faster
when it’s hot out
they’re too sound
and saddled to realize:
realness is a state of mind
like sleep
are you done
or just darkened?
let me dim those bothersome beams
from your sight
groveling on gravel
isn’t any way to go
spinning in starlit intersections
won’t buy you any danger of your own
you gotta stop showering with spiders
to atone
it’s no way to get clean
you gotta get rid of the clawing
before it swallows us
those clocks can’t tick past us
if they’re dust
and slowing down
won’t warrant the wartime;
nothing is worth fighting for
but clarity
are you through
with these dungeons?
had enough
of getting seeds stuck in your throat
before they fill the room with
promise and the stinging sand
that’s still under your fingernails
from scrubbing up their sunshine
I can’t restore your brightness
if you don’t
stop crawling into cobwebs
like they’re home
it’s no way to get free
you gotta get rid of the hammering
before it nails the door jamb shut
time can’t trap us
without trust;
we don’t believe in ticking or tape now
realness is an illness
just like me