We should have known he was a spider
No wonder he could see every move we made-
Every step we took-
His eight, repulsive eyes saw all-
Watched us intently with cold gazes
That’s how he knew where we were at all times
How he stalked without our knowing:
He stole behind us with his eight legs
Click click clicking
Covered up by the sound of the world
He spun silvery webs of lies that clung to the walls
And to our clothes and our hair
It covered every surface
Ended up in our cereal bowls until we finally thought
Forget it, we’re waiting ‘till school lunch
But even then we found the thin silvery strands on the underside of our trays
Oh, how he tricked us!
His spinnerets weren’t the only things spitting out webs of slanted words
He could sweet talk just about anyone to get what he wanted- -
Even had us on his side at one point
But then he started to grow the hairs
That covered the fatherly beard he had grown
And that grew all down his legs and his arms
That’s when his touch really did send tingles down our spines
We had been frightened of him-
Terrified-
That he would trap us in his web and make us succumb to his
Manipulation
Afraid that we would turn into little spiders like him
That snuck around on eight spindly legs
And spun webs that clung to the sidewalks of our neighborhood
Made the trees grow gray hairs like old, intelligent poets
He crawled to the corners of the ceiling
Making little white flakes of dust float down
To cover us like snow
We entertained ridiculous ideas to get rid of him--
Shoving him in the oven
Drowning him in a sack in the river
Filleting him to thin strips and throwing them out the window- -
But we could never think of a rational way to be rid of him
One day, however, one of us
Wanted some warmth and light in the cold, dark, dank living room
So we crawled through the layers of silk, some dusty, some shining
And forced our way through to the large velvet curtains
That seemed to always cover the windows
We pushed them aside and in streamed sunlight
Dappling across the floor through the dirt
The light hit his hairy face and his eight eyes turned blood red
And he shrieked-
Oh! How he shrieked!
And crazed he pit pattered out the room
Over the front steps
Down the sidewalk
And left silver smudges that shone in the sunlight and covered the sidewalk
Until they disappeared into the distance