Schraeder's creative work has appeared recently in journals including Glitterwolf, Dark Moon Digest, Katzenhatz, Hoax, Bloodbond, and elsewhere. Schraeder's short fiction also appears in several anthologies, including Between the Cracks, Petals in the Pan, and others. Schraeder studied literature and philosophy in graduate school and is author of a poetry chapbook, The Hunger Tree. Find more online at www.efschraeder.com.
-E. F. Schraeder
Cobweb Church
No, it isn’t quite daily, yet
an inevitably clumsy step through the web
I know is there but cannot see
tells me something new each time.
Those tangled invisible fingers
my hands cannot find,
let alone wipe away,
spell out an impassable urge
to build bigger than the self.
One moment reveals only a fine string
at the center, binding effort and grace,
spinning delicate woven doilies of duty
out of hunger and need.
Those wispy tickles remind, always,
when I tread into the darkness, watch closer,
don’t rush with eyes open but hazed into
what’s next or past. Respect that
personal embroidery, that map of the world.
-E. F. Schraeder
