THE SPIDER AND THE FLY

 

‘There’s a person in my soup, sir,’

Said the spider to the fly.

‘I wouldn’t worry, it’s free of charge,’

Said the fly with a wink of his eye.

‘I don’t think you understand me,’

Said the spider, feeling down.

‘If we fail to avail this miniature male,

Of some help,

I’m sure he will drown!’

 

The fly was vexed by the spider,

That he should show such unease,

For a creature so perfectly useless,

That spread nothing but death and disease.

‘It’s only a man!’ the fly quarrelled.

‘He’s not worth keeping alive.

If we save the young knave from his consommé grave

Then we may

As well let them all thrive!’

 

‘But look how the poor thing suffers!

He can barely swim anymore!

My arachnid sense of fair justice

Says we should even the score.’

The bluebottle softened inside,

He knew his pal spoke with clout.

‘We shall lend our small friend a spoon with a bend

To see if

He finds his way out.’

 

‘I’ll bet you he doesn’t quite make it,’

Said the fly, a fiver in hand.

Cried the spider in absolute outrage,

‘You’d bet on the life of a man?’

They watched as the creature struggled

To get a grasp on the spoon.

‘He will die!’ laughed the fly. ‘The spoon’s far too high!

He may as

Well try for the moon!’

 

Yet bit by bit the man climbed

Towards the edge of the bowl.

‘Come on!’ yelled the spider. ‘I know you can do it!

For the sake of your humanoid soul!’

With a final push and an effort

The man fell out and away.

‘I’m amazed! In a daze!’ screamed the fly all ablaze.

‘He is free

And free he will stay!’

 

The spider grinned with approval,

Glad that his soup was now clean.

‘You see, dear boy, the good we have done,

When we could have been terribly mean?’

The fly said ‘I think you are right, sir.

It would have been dreadfully crude,

To behave in a way at the end of the day

That’s not kind,

Just awfully rude.’

 

‘Do you have any bread?’ asked the spider,

‘To go with this very fine meal?’

The fly shook his head, said ‘I’m sorry.

But bread isn’t part of the deal.’

The spider was most disappointed,

That his friend could this him deny.

So he ate his old mate that he dipped in his plate.

After all he

Was only a fly.