artwork by Marco Zavala
edited by Misti Morrison
This week we’re excited to feature a Spiderweb newcomer, Clent Roye Wyatt. If you attended Spidercon in June you got to witness Clent’s Spiderweb debut, and hopefully you stayed to enjoy a bit of cake and coffee sacrament with us. We’ve never experienced a cyber-liturgy at a show before, and we can’t help but wonder what Clent will bring to our stage the next time he performs.
Clent grew “Turning Seasons” from a seed of nostalgia over the fall and winter of last year. We asked Clent what advice he’d like to bestow upon his fellow artists and creators, and he graced us with this incisive tidbit of wisdom: “Listen to everyone, but mostly yourself.”
Inspiration exists everywhere. Clent has been touched by a portrait of him drawn by his young daughter, by sunset-emblazoned spiderwebs, and by tightly-woven tales like The Sandman. He hopes (as do we) that readers synthesize a little magic from this piece as well.
Turning Seasons
I orbit in a spiral of ever tightening circumcision around myself,
This great stone Hill,
Cycling between day and night and (from my chthonic view)
Moving upwards to an infinite point…
No need to look beyond this body for the resurrection,
I have already lived and lost multiple lives.
Every time I die, a new me rises to take its place.
I pass through this world like the seasons.
Do not fail to let fall the old and dying from the self.
We all change colors, let it now drift away on that sigh,
For anything clung to after autumn will then haunt your ways,
A diminished shade of someone, almost a familiar.
The first lingering only makes the second and third easier.
Soon your life is devoted to all the stray corpses of you,
Rubbing at your ankles and yowling for milk,
And pissing in your house because it’s too cold out.
Burn it to ash! Burn it all away!
And lay a Lenten death-bed for spring to bloom.
About Clent Roye Wyatt: Born and raised in East Texas, my family and I moved to North Fort Worth in February of 2017 for my wife's new job. When I'm not busy as a dad (I'm very much an introvert) with my six year old daughter (who is very much an extrovert) I'm working on my stories. In past lives I've also worked in construction, videography, and had a stint as a missionary. My life sometimes is intruded upon by bouts of apophenia or synchronicity, either way it helps to keep me on my toes.
Don’t forget, if you’d like us to feature your work, you can submit it here!
Clent Roye Wyatt at Spidercon | photo by Leah Jones