A Morning Pivot

I stepped off the cafe deck into the soft earth of a morning flower bed. A green plastic plant tag was driven obliquely into the dirt, right beneath a spider's suspended orb web. Two dewdrops trembled on a single horizontal silk thread. I found an empty, dry acorn cap nearby. Kneeling down, I wedged the rim of the cap beneath the lower edge of the plastic tag to arrest its sway. Then, using both hands, I nudged the base of a hollow dandelion stem against the acorn. The tag tilted two degrees, resting solidly against the stem like a rigid buttress. The vibration didn't reach the silk. The web and its morning droplets remained perfectly level above me.