A Special Victim

She flew into his web years earlier.

Decades, really.

And lay, caught. Trembling.

She had mistaken his web for something else

Something that looked the same, but,

Wasn’t.

He descended:

Long arms and clever eyes,

And wrapped her from head to foot.

He saved her to savor.

(For it was only breakfast and

he would someday be hungry

for dinner)

Time passed. 

The web grew moldy and old

But never lost its strength.

He liquefied her

Sucked bits and pieces of her

(an elbow here, a toe there)

To satisfy his hunger through the years.

She lay helpless, caught up in bandages

A special victim.

Eventually all that remained of her was a shell

Like a cicada or a papery snakeskin.

Brains quivering in the stomach of the predator

Her heart beating in his hands.