Christopher Palmer lives in Canberra, Australia, but would like to spend time in Galway, near the birthplace of his ancestors. His poetry has been published in eleven countries, including in the Australian Poetry Journal, Blue Collar Review, Bosphorus Review of Books, The Brasilia Review, The Galway Review, London Grip, and Shot Glass Journal, among others. His first collection Afterlives was published by Ginninderra Press in 2016.

The spider on the ceiling

I watched it over three days
following it along the cornice work
never moving, but having moved, each day.

By the fourth day it had turned
perhaps having mapped its world
now assessing how far it had come
or surveying the way home.

By the fifth day it was gone
the ceiling whiter for its sudden absence
the thread broken, leaving me alone
interrupting the wall’s neat lines

for whoever’s watching my path
marking my progress, each tiny step
until I too vanish.