Poem of the Week: Allowables, by Nikki Giovanni

ALLOWABLES

 

I killed a spider

Not a murderous brown recluse

Nor even a black widow

And if the truth were told this

Was only a small

Sort of papery spider

Who should have run

When I picked up the book

But she didn’t

And she scared me

And I smashed her

 

I don’t think

I’m allowed

 

To kill something

 

Because I am

 

Frightened

 

 

by Nikki Giovanni, from “Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid,” 2013, William Morrow