God I hate spiders. I don't even know why I put them on my site. In the boredom of a lonely tent in the rainforest, I wrote the ode to them below. Its pretty common to accidently walk through webs on hiking trails. This Giant Wood Spider is HUGE. I mean bigger than my hand! This is the first time I ever thought a spider built their web across a human hiking trail on purpose. Ambitious but I believe she coulda pulled it off.
Ujong Kulon National Park, Indonesia Jan 2012

O Spider I hate thee
by Christopher Scharf

I hate thee very much o spider for all that you are
Worse than ticks, leeches or mosquitos by far

You creep me out and run over my leg where I sleep
So I put on a shoe and pound you to the ground deep

You hide on the canoe, by my tent, and at camp where you will
Please understand my position and why I must kill

You have way too many legs, big fangs and gross eyes
And so it is my intent that all of your kind dies

I know I am visiting your world, I traveled far to your shore
But I did not come in peace, I am here to declare war

Crawl on me, fall on me or attack in a wave
From this moment on I send you all to your grave