The Spider, The Cockroach, The Man

English 430
Stephen F. Austin State University
Dr. Barbara Carr
27 June 2001

Upon reading Leigh Hunt's "To the Grasshopper and the Cricket" and John Keats' "On the Grasshopper and Cricket" in Dr. Carr's Class, 27 June 2001, on a theme suggested by a classmate. Note: No Shakespearean sonnets were harmed in the making of this poem.

The Spider and the Cockroach

The Spider speeds along her spin-spanned sphere;
She senses that her lunch has lurched into
Her airy, aeolian kitchen where
It will be rendered into housefly stew.

Nocturnally the Roach broods silently,
Meditating among the doggy bowls
Upon the kitchen floor, a poisoned sea
Where Raid! doth steal exoskeleton'd souls

And blundering through my own small world come I
Most hungrily, with cup and plate in hand;
Like the Spider and Roach, my lunch I spy
There -- where the refrigerator doth stand.

Thus Spider and Roach and an aging Dude
Share their universe while searching for food.