I find fear

Beautiful

Not deep rooted dread

Or crippling anxiety

Just simple fear

That of a child

Letting a spider

Crawl onto their hand

In disturbed fascination

Yet flinging it off as it tries to crawl higher

The spider

In as much terror as the child

Always crawls away

Quickly

Who wouldn’t

Honestly

You would too

Fear of the dark

Before you turn on the lights

Fear of death

Before you’ve really lived

Fear of heights

Before you come down

I stare at the spider on the wall

It stares back

Both of us frozen

Stuck in an infinite trance

Until it moves, which it will soon

And finally the spell of mutual fear is broken as it runs

I crush it with my napkin

Fear of being hunted

Or fear of being the hunter?

Predator and prey

It goes both ways.