Vernon Witmer Poet Narrative

Notes About The Poem

Grasshopper

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.

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