Organised by

Guernsey Literary Festival

Sponsored by

Specsavers

Supported by

Guernsey Arts

Ian McEwen, Bedford

Poems on the Buses Exhibition

(Pholcus Phalangoides)

Certainly six months since I’ve been thinking of it & listen
I should reach up with that long-handled duster & listen
wrap the grey threads of her palace round & round & listen
round like some goth candyfloss. Could be a year & listen
all that time she’s not eaten – I’ve not seen her eat & listen
there’s no evidence, no body farm, her musty table & listen
no banquet. Spider stays, spider subsists, metal & listen
tight inside her harp of aerials and powerlines, & listen
I see her test the long attachments of her legs & listen
make discreet adjustments of the loom she is & listen
up in her panaudicon she listens for the universe & listen
I hear her listen