Dreaming in Japanese

The spider competing for the prize

The spider competing for the prize

in geometry has made a net

of white lines in rhomboid modes

As judge I remove my shoes

to waver like a sailor

on rigging between great spars

as I walk across the spider's web

inch along thick silken ropes

held in the curl of my toes

while sudden at the edge of my eye

a moving pillar of a shape

like the mast of the tallest ship

to set sail from Japan.

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