Once I loved a
spider
When I was born a
fly,
A velvet-footed spider
With a gown of
rainbow-dye.
She ate my wings and
gloated.
She
bound me with a hair.
She drove me to her parlor
Above her winding stair.
To
educate young spiders
She took me all apart.
My
ghost came back to haunt her.
I saw her eat my heart.
-Vachel Lindsay
The Congo and Other Poems 1914