You may be wondering what my eight-legged friend Webster has been up to recently. Well, like so many of us at this time of year he’s off on his holidays. Webster loves to travel. But how does a spider get to see far-off places?

Read on …

 

Webster the Wing Mirror Spider.

‘When I grow up,’ said Otto, ‘there’s a place of which I dream
With a cobweb in the corner by an ancient, oaken beam.
His buddy Webster whispered: ‘Me, I’ve got a different scheme.
I’m going to be a wing mirror spider!’

‘I long to travel,’ Webster said, ‘from land to foreign land.
With a towel and tiny toothbrush and my passport in my hand.
In a web that’s blown and buffeted in every silken strand
Yes, I want to be a wing mirror spider!’

Otto stopped his spinning. ‘You? You’d never make the grade.
That’s for the fit and fearless – you’re more flabby and afraid’
But Webster looked him in the eye, repeating, undismayed,
‘I’m going to be a wing mirror spider!’

‘The training’s hard,’ said Otto. ‘Do you think you can succeed?
If spiders were intended to go travelling at speed
We’d all have wheels instead of legs.’ But Webster paid no heed.
‘I’m going to be a wing mirror spider.’

‘The fun of it. The joy of it. The thrill in every vein.
To cruise along a motorway, or down a country lane.
Who cares about the snow, the freezing fog or driving rain?
I’m going to be a wing mirror spider.’

Webster trained and practised, and at last he passed the test.
Now he’s got a small certificate that shows he was the best,
And goggles and a crash hat and a windproof woollen vest,
And he’s gone to be a wing mirror spider.

So next time you’re out driving, with your Mother or your Pa,
If you spy a windswept cobweb on the mirror of your car,
Then whisper very softly ‘Oh I know just who you are.
You’re Webster, the brave wing mirror spider!’