From the Center of the Web

From the Center of the Web

I was requested by a relative to be named later
to write a poem about a spider. I think it was a spider;
I am not certain, but I know she does not like the bald ones.
My guess is that it was another animal that I have forgotten;
short term memory sometimes short-circuits that way.
Of a certainty though,
I do think I know that
this creature was to be intelligent.
Which makes me think it was not a spider for
spiders
have tiny little heads and very limited cranial capacity
for even a brain of average intelligence.
That is, except if we are talking analogously,
for a spider can carry much more brain power than
a midge or a mite.
The test, I suppose, would be its vocabulary.
Does it know the alphabet, can it rhyme (which this
poet cannot)? Can it count
and tell me that, as an arachnid, it must, most definitely have
eight legs?

“To have more would be preposterous,”
said the creature from the center of the web.

If you must know, this was all my grandchild’s idea.
I have never written about bugs and hope never to again.
I was informed, though, that as intelligent spiders may be,
they have not concocted a people spray to kill threatening men.

So I thank my grandchild Sage,
and bow to their extraordinary wisdom.
Also, I have never ridden a preposterous before,
but someday hope to have the opportunity.