Tale Of A Black Widow Poem by Curtis Johnson

A Black Widow’s Tale
By Curtis Johnson

It was not quite a ‘history repeating itself’ event, but it was close. It was the same place and close to the same time but a different day, separated by nearly a year. Like then, I was watering. Like then, there was a spider. Like then, there was a yard bug trapped in a spider’s web. However, unlike then, there would be no rescue by me of an entangled bug, but rather a large catch by the spider.

It was Saturday morning at 7: 20. It was the 4th of July, and the fire works would not be blasting away for several hours. However, the yard bug in question would not be around to hear the sounds of patriotic celebrations on this holiday. It appears that this time, I was just a bit late to hear the sounds of “Help me! ”.

I walked out my front door to water the flowers. As I bent over to turn on the water faucet, I noticed a most interesting encounter. A Black Widow Spider had begun processing its food supply at the expense of a yard bug. The bug was trapped in the spider’s web, and there would be no getting away this time.

After observing this wild life ritual for a minute or two, I went back into the house so that I could record what I saw. When I returned at 7: 30 to continue my observation, I must say that I was surprised that the spider and the bug were no where to be found. Not being educated on the eating ways of spiders, I thought that the spider would consume its prey in the web. Apparently, she had a better location for storage and eating purposes.

As I thought upon this wild life tale, I began to realize that the bug was only slightly smaller than the spider. This meant that there was enough bug food for several days. So the Black Widow was dismantling its prey from the web to tuck it away for future consumption. The bug catch was sufficient enough supply for the whole Black Widow family.

I could not help but recall my similar observation of last August 18th, when I was able to rescue the bug from the trap of the spider. It could have been, but I doubt that it was the same bug. I think perhaps he would have been smarter than to return to the same danger zone. But who knows? However, I have every reason to believe that this was the same Black Widow, who this time, beat me to the bug.

Cj07042015