Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Spider

1. Watching from the outside, 

    No one likes to notice

    The one looking in. 

    But the spider sees. 

2. I wish I could be like the spider. 

    When spinning and work is done,

    I could relax, watch, and wait

    For I know my food will come presently.

3. Someone lives with you, 

    And watched everything you do. 

    But they scurry at night, 

    And take no pride in appearance. 

    Your roommate is a spider. 

4. Everyone stops and watches

    When a spider has caught his prey. 

    But they never stopped to watch him wait, 

    Or to admire his invisible work. 

5. Lessons in table manners: 

    Eat quickly like the spider

    And cover your mess like a civilized person. 

6. Shiver, shiver, 

    Dart and quiver. 

    A jerking end for a spider's meal. 

7. As the spider eats her web before the storm, 

    Use today what cannot be saved for tomorrow. 

8. Hours of labor

    And no one sees. 

    Take it down

    And no one mourns. 

    The spider never gives up. 

9. It took one girl to scream for five, 

    Two more to call one guy, 

    Three to find the shoe, 

    And one poor dead spider who started it all. 

10. The view of the lovely pink clouds, 

      The stuff of stately paintings

      And deep musings, 

      Was ruined by the black spider and its pitiful prey. 

11. In the corner of the ceiling

      There is a black spot that never moves. 

      But the many eyes of the spider, 

      They watch. 

12. Pray your reputation never precedes you 

      As it does the spider. 

      For people never stop to ask

      Whether you're a common brown or a black widow. 

13. Spiders. 

      Those eerie, dangling acrobats

      On their lines of silk.