Transborder Immigrant Tool Series: If Tarantulas ‘Cross Your Path’ in the Desert, Live and Let Live
The 10th poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" debunks certain myths about the hairy arachnids, while explaining what will certainly occur to those who taunt the tarantula.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Wikimedia Commons
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Wikimedia Commons
The Transborder Immigrant Tool is a GPS cellphone safety-net tool for crossing the Mexico-U.S. border. It was developed by Electronic Disturbance Theater/b.a.n.g. lab in 2007 by artists Micha Cárdenas, Amy Sara Carroll, Ricardo Dominguez, Elle Mehrmand and Brett Stalbaum, in conjunction with CALIT2/Visual Arts Department/University of California, San Diego/Program in American Culture, Latina/o Studies/English Department/University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Poet Amy Sara Carroll wrote a series of 24 poems titled “The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto,” which were uploaded onto cellphones equipped with simple compasses and interfaces. Each poem is a form of lyrical advice that provides readers and listeners with tools for every hour of a day spent in the pernicious borderlands between the U.S. and Mexico. Truthdig is publishing these poems in Spanish and English in our Poetry section, accompanied by bilingual audio recordings. To read the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth poems in the series, click on the hyperlinks. For more information on the project, watch the video presentation below.
The tenth poem in “The Desert Survival Series/La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto,” read in English by Amy Sara Carroll and Spanish by Francheska Alers-Rojas.
10.
Female tarantulas line their burrows with silk. Enterprising, they swing their elaborately webbed entrances open at night to spring on guileless insects nearby. Although some South Texans contend that nocturnal mass exoduses of tarantulas are the dead rising from their graves; in fact, male tarantulas, mildly venomous, routinely venture forth at dusk. If they cross your path, live and let live. Otherwise, these book-lunged arachnids will bite or flick you off, blowing hairs from their bellies into the air. Like slivers, their missives will enter your skin, provoking gradations of irritation (itching, swelling, raised reddish bumps). Worse yet, if their hairs float like spores into your eyes, expect a reaction comparable to that induced by pepper spray or tear gas. It will pass, but consider, in Italy, many once believed that the only cure for a tarantula’s bite or shedding was the dance now known as the tarantella.
Las tarantulas hembras envuelven sus madrigueras con seda. Emprendedoras, explayan sus elaboradamente tejidas entradas por la noche para atrapar a los inocentes insectos cercanos. Aunque algunos tejanos del sur sostienen que el masivo éxodo nocturno de las tarantulas son los muertos que salen de sus tumbas; de hecho, las tarantulas macho, ligeramente venenosas, rutinariamente se aventuran durante el ocaso. Si cruzan su camino, viva y deje vivir. De lo contrario, estos arácnidos con pulmones laminares le morderán o chasquearan, soplando los pelos de sus panzas al aire. Como las astillas, sus misivas entraran en su piel, provocando gradaciones de irritación (picor, hinchamiento, topetones rojizos levantados). Peor aun, si sus pelos flotan como esporas a sus ojos, espere una irritación similar a la inducida por el spray de pimienta o el gas lacrimógeno. Pasara; pero, considere que en Italia muchos creyeron una vez que la única cura para una mordedura o el vertimiento de la tarantula era la danza ahora conocida como la tarantela.
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The 12th poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" warns those crossing the U.S.-Mexico border that though a sting by an Arizona bark scorpion is, for the most part, not lethal, it requires medical attention.
The 11th poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" urges those crossing the border to phone for help immediately in life-and-death situations.
The ninth poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" explains that Africanized bees, even when unprovoked, will attack humans.
The eighth poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" provides crucial tips the desert traveler can use as the sand turns to "sandpaper" and the heat suffocates during a journey across the Mexico-US border The eighth poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" provides crucial tips the desert traveler can use as the sand turns to "sandpaper" and the heat suffocates a journey across the Mexico-U .
The seventh poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" explains how clusters of cottonwood trees indicate a nearby spring, a crucial tip to surviving the desert border crossing between Mexico and the United States.
The sixth poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" tells us that while taste—like poetry—may seem irrelevant as one risks one's life crossing the US- Mexico border, it can be a means of survival The sixth poem in "The Desert Survival Series / La serie de sobrevivencia del desierto" tells us that while taste—like poetry—may seem irrelevant as one risks one's life crossing the U- Mexico border, it can be used as a means of survival .
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