Ode to the Cannibal
The redback spider throws himself into the hollow fangs of his beloved. A little gymnast, he leaps mid-thrust. Beforehand, he plucks the silky strings of her web. Romances his darling. Imagines himself as tremendous as her body. The females are wholly themselves. Bellies stuffed with the same. Their insides spilling with their insides. Fat and happy. Taking everything their sweethearts have to give. Domestic hogs sometimes savage their young. Feed on the babies while the babies feed on them. Out of necessity mostly. There isn’t enough to go around. And there’s the sea squirt: who stations her back against a rock and eats her own mind. The sea squirt reclaims her parts, salvages a form, houses both genders, starts to glow as she becomes who she is.