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Original artwork by Caspian Samuel

What Do Spiders Dream About?

Shannon Frost Greenstein
Poetry
May 10, 2023
NiftyLit #10
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“We report evidence for an REM sleep–like state in a terrestrial invertebrate: periodic bouts of retinal movements coupled with limb twitching behaviors during nocturnal resting in a jumping spider. Eye movement patterns are hypothesized…to link to the visual experience of dreaming.”*

 

Science has now informed us

that spiders are capable of dreaming.

Science has spent its grant money

watching baby spiderlings sleep.

 

to sleep/a respite from the unrelenting compulsion to hunt/to build/to nourish/to multiply/a blissful miasma of nothingness/a tabula rasa upon which the imagination will sketch/to dream/a gift/a luxury no longer reserved for vertebrates/apparently/and Aristotle said animals have souls.

 

Let’s just take a minute

to fully examine this discovery.

Let’s pause all the scientific celebration

to really discuss all the terror.

 

jumping spiders/E. arcuata Salticidae/the most heinous of the arachnids/because of all the jumping/hanging upside down on the slightest/and strongest/of silken threads/sleeping the sleep of the predator/brain slipping into that universal mystery known as REM sleep/and actually fucking dreaming about whatever it is spiders dream about.

 

Join me, arachnophobes,

in condemning these scientists in perpetuity.

Because I was so much happier

before I knew this.

 

what do spiders dream about/succulent flies/the perfect web/early-morning summer breezes drifting over an exoskeleton dotted with dew/sex/a kaleidoscope of snowflakes as seen through spider eyes/and eyes/and eyes/the overwhelming love of holding one’s newborn/spider revolution

 

And now I can’t help

but wonder late at night

if spiders ever have lucid dreams

and what the hell that might look like.

 

because what does a spider desire/when it is given the power/to be anything it wants to be/to fly/to fuck/to see the world/what does a spider do/in the depths of unconsciousness/escaping its evolutionary boundaries/and the laws of nature/to do absolutely anything at all?

 

* Robler, Daniela C. “Regularly Occurring Bouts of Retinal Movements Suggest an REM Sleep-like State in Jumping Spiders.” Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, vol. 119, no. 33, August 2022. 

Shannon Frost Greenstein (she/her) is the author of “These Are a Few of My Least Favorite Things,” a poetry collection with Really Serious Literature, and “Pray for Us Sinners”, a collection of short fiction from Alien Buddha Press. She is a former Ph.D. candidate in Continental Philosophy. Follow her on Twitter at @ShannonFrostGre or on her website at shannonfrostgreenstein.com.

Caspian Samuel is a visual artist whose work spans across many mediums. Through each medium they find a different way to express themself. Sometimes images come to them through dreams, other times they see visions overlaid in the natural world. Their subject matter is based on their personal emotional processing and multifaceted perspective. They grew up in the south and have always gravitated toward nature. As someone who is gender-fluid, they feel their experiences bridge the gender gap leaving them with a deeper understanding of humanity as a whole. They hope to continue exploring the balance of masculine and feminine energy through their work. In this exploration they wish to convey how we as humans are adaptable and can be a simple vessel for a wide range of experiences.

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