A morning walk on wooded road

Brings wild action, with any luck.

Small stuff maybe — snail or toad,

Or colorful bird, tippy doe or buck.

Filmy Dome Spider: plentiful it’s said,

But confession: beyond my note.

Yet sunlight on bush turns my head,

I spy glowing silken spider cote.

Not just any structure, but fancy form,

A dome among supporting gleams,

Perfect glistening lines conform

Gossamer reflected sunbeams.

Inverted paraboloid, rounded top,

Holds blissful Neriene radiate pair,

Small, quarter inch, --- co-op —

Not like Black Widow’s storied lair.  

In three dimensional rounded cone,

Only a few silks bear sticky glue,

Before struggling insect is gone,

Contact with one or more is due.

There’s intelligence here included,

Such intricacies of geometric show, 

DNA’s complexities finely extruded,

Sparkles brightly in Nature’s window.  

© 2008 R. Leland Waldrip