A poem for the spiders in my bathroom, of which there are so many by Manahil Bandukwala

f

or Ashley Hynd

I’m not convinced

spiders are cold-blooded.

Not the ones

in my bathroom,

anyways. I’m convinced

they like the heat — soft silk

spinning away a

as the shower runs. Cobweb corners

steam up. Or maybe

the webs were always there

shimmering in and out

of light above the cabinet

or I’m just never actively

on a spider hunt, and I don’t think

about spiders

until one drops in my face

when I’m naked

and water-drenched

scrubbing spiders out

from between my toes

exfoliating either dead skin

or spider legs

or I finally believe

spiders are cold-blooded and each spider

in the shower

is an anomaly.

Each day is an anomaly, wondrous

steamed air

webbed across the ceiling.

---

Manahil Bandukwala is a visual artist and writer. Her most recent forthcoming work is a collaborative piece with Liam Burke titled "Orbital Cultivation, and is out with Collusion Books in 2021. She is Coordinating Editor for Arc Poetry, and Digital Content Editor for Canthius. She is a member of VII, an Ottawa-based creative writing collective. See her work at manahilbandukwala.com.