Visible Darkness

A thunderhead churns in slow-motion
Its high clouds billow white
Against a darkening blue expanse
Bats chirp a chorus under a bayou bridge
And a falcon circles a slow descent

Thousands of grackles gather on powerlines
To watch the end of day
The last rays of sun move across the city
As it rises from the desert plain

Her abdomen hovers above the sparkle of twisted skyscrapers
And her thin, long legs easily navigate
Between metallic buildings
One furry claw here on the pavement
Barely missing a sidewalk crack
And one claw there
Next to a man asleep on a bench
He doesn't wake

Now, beyond the buildings
She rests at the edge of a concrete-lined waterway
Between her two front legs
She holds the remnants of a shattered porcelain bowl
Its glaze is a galaxy swirl of greens and blues
Tiny bird silhouettes
Lift from its fractured surface
And merge into the surrounding darkness

She gathers the shards
And makes her way to a deserted avenue
She ascends a slick glass tower
A shimmer of silk spools out from her spinnerets
And wafts high on the breeze
Sticking to the steel building across the street
One glimmering thread at a time
She crafts a magnificent web
At last, she settles in its center
And starts to work on the shattered bowl
With silk and gold
She adheres each broken piece to its match
And makes what was once broken, whole