Marlowe, the cellar spider who has been living behind my beside cabinet for the last 18 months, disappeared a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t too worried as they’d done that before and then turned up again a few weeks later, fatter and of greater span.
On Monday, however, Alex found Marlowe’s mortal remains beneath the bathroom radiator. Marlowe is no more.
Rather than an undignified flushing or binning, I thought an undignified burning was in order, given the Viking weather the UK is currently experiencing:
Marlowe was well-supplied with grave goods – origami flowers, a votive offering of a dead fly, and a ceremonial hemp web – for their journey we know not whither:
Purifying fire released their elements back to the air from which they came (somewhat indirectly, being a secondary consumer):
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Farewell Marlowe. May your spiderlings inherit the Earth.
