do spiders sleep

do spiders sleep by phil burns

Click here to hear the poet read his words:

do spiders sleep

when I first saw Susie
busying herself
in a shaded protected corner
of a very small room
in my apartment
she was no bigger
legs included
than the nail
on my little finger

what do you eat
I wondered
as she was
clearly too petite
to tackle even a mosquito
but during those
days of confinement
when I saw her often
she must have found
some nourishment
because she grew
enough that I noticed

I call her Susie
not Steve
because in French
her mother tongue
I suppose
the word for spider
araignée
is feminine
and I don’t like to contradict
a centuries old
language and culture

I hope that
she will continue to grow
and will eliminate
at least some mosquitoes
during the warmer weather
now arriving

so we co-exist
quite peacefully
which is
I believe
as much as can be hoped for
between different species
in trying times

I ask her many things
although she rarely responds
and never in words
but she seems more accepting now
of my intrusions
less prone to disappearing
into her darkest corner
when I disturb
her privacy

so the question remains
unanswered
because I refuse
to use Google in this case
preferring to exercise
my imagination
and to ask her
gently but persistently
do spiders sleep?