Daddy Long Legs

When I was a kid
My summers were spent
In the Catskills where
My parents went.

It was country bliss
And a life of ease
But with lots of spiders,
Wasps and bees.

There was one mean boy
And he got his kicks
Playing pranks he pulled
From his bag of tricks.

But the cruelest one,
Which caused gasps and screams,
Really shook me up
And invaded dreams.

He would catch a spider,
The Daddy-kind,
Yanking off its legs,
Leaving one behind.

The discarded legs
He would toss at me;
As the spider flailed,
He would howl with glee.

Though that boy’s long gone
And his fate unknown,
When a spider’s near,
It gets left alone.