By Tony Halstead
A cunning little goblin, I nimbly surf my net: So agile on the fragile, How clever can one get?
The web displays my genius: Its source is quite divine. I’m programmed so to do it, Yet proud to call it mine.
Oh great the glinting gossamer, Elastic, strong and smooth. But when a snack becomes enmeshed, Itself it cannot move.
Some folks think me ugly, Which so fills me with woe; Yet Mother once assured me: “You’re the prettiest thing I know!”
My many legs negotiate Transparent, sticky strands. Like some nightmarish acrobat, Those limbs become my hands!
I have never once felt dizzy As I build my trap aloft. My balance is miraculous, For I’ve never once dropped off!
I skip along the gossamer Like some gymnastic great. Why I never get entangled. I can only speculate.
Lines of glistening light I spin, That ripple in the wind. The breeze and I we have a deal: He blows my meals right in!
My poison is amazing: It turns my prey to mush. This avoids hard chewing As insects are dead tough!
“Always wrap yer lunch up”, Dad would grunt and say. “Cos if it’s in a parcel neat, It don’t get in the way”.
I have a hundred sisters. One is called Annette. She lost an eye the other day, But has five others yet!
My spinnerets are in my rear: Not a pleasant place, for When the wind gusts backwards, The strands blow in my face!
On moonlit nights when all is still I make my web a harp. I pluck arachnid melodies Which decorate the dark.
Knit one pearl two, The lines are sewn so thin How delicate my network: I am the King of Spin!
Gateway Church Ashford, is a church in Ashford, Kent, and is part of the New Frontiers movement and within the Catalyst Network sphere.