217/365 Iktomi

She sat
quietly
watching,
waiting,
listening?
while we ate
our salmon
pasta
in cream sauce
on the tiny porch.

Clare
noticed her first
and politely
addressed her:
“Hello!
have you come
to join us
for dinner?”
Chask’e provided
her name: Iktomi,
and told us
a Lakota story
about her exploits.

The following evening
after a dinner
not on the tiny porch
a visiting friend
noticed Iktomi
when he
opened the door.
Not knowing our history
with the spider
and because it was
large and
hairy and
a spider,
he squished her and
loudly and proudly announced:
“I killed a huge wolf spider!”