The Sparing of a Little Spider That Almost Failed

By Tom Probasco

Wiping up crumbs the same size

on the counter and around

the edge of the kitchen sink,

I knocked him in and nearly

washed him down.

While I tended to the table,

he ascended the enamel wall.

Then once again

I knocked him in,

watched him draw up into a ball.

He stretched out his legs and started back up

the side he’d already scaled.

With my finger I ensured his success.

I think of it as the sparing

of a little spider that almost failed.

Tom Probasco has had poems published in the Northwest Indiana Literary Journal, the INverse Poetry Archive, and in several Indiana Writers Center publications, including Flying Island.  In addition to writing the occasional poem, he plays harmonica in the Indianapolis band True North.