The web spinner will look you straight in the eye.
That’s what they do, you know.
Not that their clear glassy blues reflect who they are.
On the contrary. They know who you are.
And how could you resist their sticky thread?
Listless, you’ll be surfing thru space and
Suddenly be lured into one of their seductive websites and
They’ll offer you cookies no less,
Cookies which you may or may not know
Are no good for you.
But you’ll click on them anyway so
You can get back to the big dessert
While the real sugar junkies are these web spiders
And you just gave them dinner.
They look like junkies too. Remember the glassy eyes?
They’ll have spider webs all over their junky clothes and
Dry twigs in their stringy long gray hair.
Witch or warlock it’s hard to tell,
Just dark night back-alley types although
You may not recognize them when they have on their million-dollar suits
And spend their endless nocturnal hours in their corner offices
With their spider plants and moonflowers which thrive
In low artificial light. But no matter.
When the plants die, they just buy some more.
After all, they’re sugar junkies. They have the money. Geez.
How much money does anyone need?
Maybe you could Google it or ask on Facebook
But then you’d probably just be dinner again.
Would it be contrived to say you’re being eaten alive?
All over the world you fall prey and connect, connect, connect
To what? To a thousand friends you’ve never met?
To someone’s photoshopped selfie? To attention getting misinformation?
Lonely, depressed, confused? Feeling a bit abused?
And all the while the algorithms
Keep sending you more of the same and
You dig in your heels and connect with those people
With whom you have no connection
While the ads get bigger and the web spiders continue to dine
On the bottom line.
Put down your phone and go knock on your neighbor’s door
And when they answer
Look them straight in the eye and answer in kind
And you will both grow into new awareness, however private and small, yet huge.
Don’t look at the web spinner.
Go out in the daylight and have dinner
With people in the world you’d really like to get to know.