Ancient and wise

[neverspent]

The summer I turned seven years old, I caught a large brown grasshopper and kept him in a jar under my bed for awhile. His appearance and demeanor struck me as being wise and ancient, so I named him King of my "animal kingdom," which consisted of stuffed toys. Eventually I released King Grasshopper into the yard he'd come from, and the stuffed animals reverted from monarchy back to their former peaceful anarchy.

It's grasshopper days again — searing hot, dry, dusty; and they're everywhere, leaping with a buzz in long, graceful half-flights to a distant patch of grass, dozens scattering when you walk by. I still think they look like dinosaur contemporaries with inscrutable faces.

Comments

[shinsetsu]

That's a really good picture of one. You don't usually get to see their patterns like that. I don't mind grasshoppers, but they kinda scare me because they move so fast and unpredictably.

[neverspent]

There were a lot of grasshoppers resting on the walls and screens of the house. I've inspected them closely in the past, but it had been awhile, and I was reminded how pretty the patterns are on the big ones. I know what you mean though, when they're flying around in the grass you kind of don't know where they're going to land, and those clinging legs are a bit creepy.