a spider goes to class

by Fred Aiken

a spider came right up to me
while i walked down this path 
in a park near my house,
and i asked the spider,
what kinda spider are you?

and the spider told me that it was rude of me to ask,
how dare i,
so i apologized and tried to get past the spider,
but the spider kept following me
until i was left with no other options

i stepped on the spider with my right foot,
and as the spider lay dying,
breathing with its small squashed spider lungs,
the spider asked,
why’d you do that?
i was just trying to get to class