WELCOME TO THE HOME OF
RAND, THE SHAMALAMA MAN
Kiss of the Spider
You and I, we hang by threads,
Dangling precariously in the air.
We swing like acrobats but do not miss.
And we meet in the middle
As we are spinning in circles,
Weaving our own separate, delicate patterns
Until ropes intertwine like netted mesh
And we have both fallen prey to each other.
It’s a hideous beauty, the kiss of the spider.
And now your gossamer ballad
Is being carried upon the wind.
Your song is enchanting, enticing, seductive,
As the strange, gauzy threads
Wrap around me, threatening death.
But I too hold the poison, feel the passion,
Feel the heat of our bodies
Pressed against one another.
I too fall prey to the spider.
We strangers cut into each other
Like cold, blue steel,
Piercing the skin,
Grappling, groping, wrestling.
We do not notice
Every thin, silk strand
Snaps
Pulling us apart.
And we still swing by threads
Above the ground,
Although the patterns have drifted apart.
One day they will become entangled again,
As we are acrobats once more
In a deadly game of touch and go
Then carried upon the wind like gliders.
We are both victims of the kiss of the spider.
“Kiss of the Spider,” October 4, 1987.
Get to know a little bit about me and my personal habits.
October 2, 2000.
Or you can check out my creative side (poetry, op ed colums).
Read about my summer at the Pennsylvania
Governor’s School for the Arts (July 1989).
You can also find out who have been my major influences as a poet.
And feel free to browse through my Photo Galleries.
Help me find some long lost friends.
No, they’re not X-rated... they’re EX-rated. Find out who would actually date someone like me.
November 27, 2000.
Check out some of my favorite links.
Any time you need to get home from one of these locations, simply click on the rainbow triangle.
Many of these items can also be found on my old Penn State website, which for some reason has not yet been shut down (probably because of my immense popularity as an opinions columnist there for so many years... nyuk nyuk...) and which I link to here for the sole purpose of diverting traffic for the Glory of Dear State... my heart bleeds blue and white!
I had also had some books here you could buy through Amazon.com. At the moment I don't even know if these links are still valid. Same goes for a lot of the links on this page, now that I think of it. That's something else I'll need to update over the next few weeks.
Feel free to email me. Feel especially free to let me know if any links aren't working. (Granted, if you're reading this in the year 2000, odds are I'm still just UPDATING this from the last two years and trying to get it to work right, in which case you may be especially helpful or simply redundant.)
Last updated November 27, 2000.
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