baby spider pressed against my windshield
as I drive down country roads
with a 50 mph speed limit
and soon I will be on the freeway
where the speed limit is 70

I pull over and look around in my car
for something I can use to lift the baby
off my windshield
I find an old cardboard cup sleeve
and push it under the little spider
until he climbs on
then I take him to the side of the road
and dangle him over a dandelion leaf
I watch as he lowers himself onto the leaf
with his spider string
and then I get back in my car
and head for the freeway

sometimes it’s handy to have a car
littered with cardboard cup sleeves

-Karen Molenaar Terrell