An Evening Guest - A Giant House Spider!

An Evening Guest - A Giant House Spider! 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

In my room one peaceful evening came a spider*.

Welcome, gladly I said, as it paused for a moment

on drawings on the wall my grand children** made,

its legs tapping a message for whatever it meant.

Ah, you are an artist too, I guessed, as it moved 

along and across swiftly I thought it would fall,

Instead it embraced a make-believe companion;

I looked into this creature a mirror on the wall.

* Giant house spider (Aratigena africa) is also known as Wolsey spider (Tegenaria parietina), sometimes referred to as Cardinal spider, named after Cardinal Wolsey during the time of  Henry VIII of England. Giant house spiders have been recently  classified under genus Aratigena. 

** Pastel drawings by the author's grandchildren at their ancestral home in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, circa 2016.  Mackie, now 14, drew this geometric figure of a spider.