Sister Spider Poem by James Charlton

This large, sedentary spider
which shares our bathroom,


spending hours wiping droplets
from her leg hair,


has a dusting of animated poppy seeds
on her back.


Greetings, spiders, with whom we inhabit
common space;


and potoroo and magpie, also having a part
in us, and we with you.


Greetings to everyday epiphanies;
not forgetting you insects,


in bodiliness our brothers;
and you, the unseen forms


which might infect, or assist,
being heirs with us and all the other creatures


which walk, crawl, fly, slide, multiply,
divide or stay put;


joint heirs of such molecular inheritance
that where our skin stops,


our bodies do not stop,
greetings.