Grasshopper
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The oldest living group
of chewing herbivorous insects
proudly carries 250 million years
of quiet evolution.
No soft muscle tissue
on these grasshopper legs,
they are bear
as clean-picked chicken bones
and hard
as the outer shell of some crustaceans.
Finned spikes line each shank
for gripping tightly golden strands
of summer wheat in blowing fields.
Armor plating, like kevlar vest, worn upon a body
that sits low between two high-rise knobby knees.
A sling-shot lying wait
to catapult away,
carried on an allied wind
with force to help escape
all dangerous predators.
A wind that has carried
grasshopper history for centuries
from field to field
across deserts and water,
through forests and plains.
Now that same ally wind
has betrayed them,
carrying them here
to a final destiny with me,
flattened in defeat
upon my windshield.
Copyright © Vernon Witmer | Year Posted 2021
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