By Chris Galvin
Matthew Q. the Poemblaze
saw a Giant House Spider
spinning in his sink.
He wrung his hands,
he shook his head:
The creature’s bigger than a truck!
He opened the taps,
he flushed it down
the drain,
then just for good measure,
he poured in Liquid Plumbr
while tweeting his triumph.
Unapologetic,
he suggested I ignore his tweet.
I tried
but I could not.
I always rescue spiders;
I put them out of doors.
Though some may disbelieve,
‘tis with fondness I recall
the tenant of the shower room
in my house in Việt Nam;
the stealthy Huntsman Spider
that lurked upon the wall.
This poem was inspired by a discussion on Twitter with poet buddy, Matt Quinn, aka @Poemblaze.
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About Chris Galvin
Chris Galvin is a Canadian writer, editor and photographer dividing her time between Canada and Viet Nam. Her essay Flood Season was a finalist for the 2012 Best of the Net prize, and Discovering Hến Rice in Central Việt Nam won third place (shared) and a Readers’ Choice Award in the 2015 I Must Be Off! Travel Essay Contest. Her work has appeared in various anthologies and literary journals, including Descant, Asian Cha, PRISM International, Room, and others. She has written in Vietnamese and English for Vietnam Tourism Review/Kham Pha Du Lich Vietnam Magazine, Travellive, and Du Lich Giai Tri. Chris is currently looking for a home for her recently completed manuscript, Breakfast Under the Bodhi Tree, a book about living, eating, and tour-guiding in Viet Nam.
I’m glad you like spiders. I will mail you every one I find from now on. 😉
Be careful! They might become poems. 😀
I may write a resposne poem. 😀
Glad you did! 🙂
That is one big-ass spider 😯 Are they used for rodent control? When I lived on Okinawa, we had what we referred to as “benjo spiders”, several inches across, and they could JUMP. Like, ACROSS the room. I have no idea what they were really called. The little ones I find in my house here, generally wolf spiders, I try to trap and take outside. Squishing anything sort of grosses me out.
I’ve never seen the Huntsman jump, but I’m sure they could. They usually just sit there passively. They eat insects and cockroaches, so I just leave them alone. Too big to carry outside. I’d need something pretty large to capture them. I don’t think they eat rodents. Like you, I don’t like to squish things; partly because it’s gross, but also because it doesn’t seem right.
Hahaha – I just read Matt’s poem then decided to visit your blog and here was this response – you both made me giggle :)) love this
This is something that started last year. I was wondering what to write for today’s poem, when I remembered I’d jotted down some notes for a poem about Matt’s sink spider. It grew into this. 😀
Eeek! I would have freaked out! We try do capture and release when we can…Though that guy looks pretty dangerous so it might be just as well to flush it.
Great poem! 🙂
Here’s mine: http://ascendingthehills.blogspot.com/2012/04/poetry-challenge-door-wont-be-singing.html
I can relate! I don’t like to kill spiders either, primarily because they are one of God’s creatures. Secondarily, because I don’t like the sound of stepping on them, nor the cleanup of carcass and innards. So maybe drowning is a little more acceptable. Hmm, did I just flip flop? ;p