Grasshopper

Cherry

By queen beatle

Mon, 10 Feb 2025
  • 184 reads
4 comments
 

Do you not see me?

 

Well, I remember you:

your upturned face

as I evaded starvation

by eating my own foot.

 

It surprised you, I think

that the sterile white belly

of human domesticity

could drain a spirit so

 

yet you understood

seemed to sense my longing

for dense green interweaves

to flicker out among.

 

You, who never knew need

beyond its definition

noticed it in me.

 

The window, so close

so ripe for opening

while I craved the growth

and dim dapples

of my natural state;

 

you saw it all

brushed your teeth

and slept instead.

Instead, I completed

my consumption.

 

Alive, I was hunger incarnate;

in devouring myself

I swallowed that too.

 

And now, at our reunion

there's nothing in me left

that you would recognise.

Certificate PG
Poem
my poems
Nature
Miscellaneous
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by Sooz006 on

Wow. Taking this from the literal to the profound is an overkill on thought-provoking. It took me to think about human mental health and literal foot gnawing. Imagine doing that for no other reason than primal urge, or your brain telling you to. 

This is my favourite poem for ages. I loved it. 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Another beauty queen beatle. Thank you

 

Submitted by Schubert on

The trouble with eating your own foot is you tend to limp badly for the rest of your life. Next time round ask to be a salamander as they regrow limbs and avoid limping! Great poem.

Submitted by D G Moody on

I read this on two levels; one was - as I thought - about a literal grasshopper trapped indoors and forced to self-consume; the other seemed to be about a relationship that was getting off on the wrong foot ....oops! Anyway, a poem that stays with me - well done!

Dougie Moody