my spider legs.

spider legs grow back when
you pull them off--
one by one--
for you it's as easy as
cherry stems--
apple neck-- pluck the tight
artery of a strawberry skull
sway low--
low low-- we watched
them hang themselves
in the spring which is wrong
because things don't die
in april-- you're supposed
to wait till november when the
leaves are ready for bodies--
daffodils have gaping lips
languid with frost bite--
this is me watching myself
regenerate in a mirror--
wait with me while i grow back
myself sitting on the hem 
of another midnight--
i fall asleep wishing i wasn't a spider--
but don't we all? how many 
girls cried when they counted their
own legs-- 
there's so many pieces of
myself to keep track of that
i don't notice when you 
dismember me until i stop
before the mirror--
oh what did god not think
of little boys when he made 
our legs? 
did he not know how much fun
it is to watch a girl grow back
after you've picked her
unripe and blushed in green--
pin her up against your bedroom
door and kiss off her legs
until she is nothing but
a tree torso--
oh there's only so much
you can lose until
you have lost too much to 
still remember your own name--
my father is a cricket
so he named me after the temperature
of an august moon--
round and welcoming as a dinner plate--
he used my legs for guitar strings--
my mother--was a jupiter beetle
and she wanted a daughter
to shine but instead she
fills the trash cans behind the house
with my limbs-- 
i want to blame boys--
i want to blame the fallacy of regeneration
no no no
they lied to you when they
told you i grow back the same 
after i've been harvest as 
easy as cherry stems-- 
spit out my brain-- the gory vein pit--
oh four-leg boy
how sweet are the cherries this
season? did you remember
where you put my legs after you
pulled them off--
tossed them in your hamper
like boxers--
oh boy yes the legs will grow back
but keep the last ones as souvenirs--
a bouquet of my stolen body--
the trophy-- my spider legs--
did i meant i bite back
while you sleep?
oh this is how you love
and still grow back your limbs--