Grasshoppers In A Box. Poem by Geoffrey Fafard

I caught them by their heads
One giant motley brown
One giant lollipop green
I could almost hear them
Chewing on my yellow Iris
Munching on my dead uncles
Potted lemon tree
- - - - -
So with their heads poised
Between my thumb and forefinger
All I had to do was squeeze
And feed the bodies to the turtles
Or fish or maybe the ducks
All of whom were hungry
Absolutely no remaining evidence
Would or could be found
- - - - -
But I felt their eyes moving
Beneath my touch
Felt their hearts beat and beat
They were eating just eating
Instinctively as you or I would
I looked at my trees and plants
Sighing I wandered
Through uncharacteristic
Emotions and thoughts.
- - - - -
I placed them in a box hoping
No one would see my behaviour
I placed them in a box looking
For a solution
I placed them in a box my God
Me..! Who up until recently
Would have stamped the life
Out of these two in a split second
- - - - -
I put them in a box and snuck
Down the road a few miles
And let them go by the river
By the bloody river in a big tree
I am the lowest kind of weak
But I am the highest kind of happy…!