Monday, December 13, 2010

Plastic Grasshopper



i hopped with polyethylene legs
tight-roped on tassels of polystyrene grass
as the sun spilled its propane-fired rays
your factories wheeze organic chemistry
puffing clouds heavy with hydrocarbon chains
until the rain glops hard
sheeting my carapace glistening and sealed
a plastic grasshopper
prepackaged for summer
undying
smiling

7 comments:

Erratic Thoughts said...

Very Chemical...
Fantastic click...
m smiling all the way... :)

SarahA said...

Beside the langauage, I am liking how this is kinda creepy but beautiful at the same time! The picture too!

Karen said...

"tight roped on tassels" -- love that!

the walking man said...

Excellent! New business opportunity, making exact replicas of all insects as we eradicate them we can sell samples of what other species once inhabited the earth. Of course we have to figure out how we will survive first.

Seré Prince Halverson said...

The photograph! How did you get that effect? It really clinched the poem for me. Beautiful and sad.

Laurel said...

I agree about the photograph. It is perfect with the sterile, chemical description.

Anonymous said...

Erratic thoughts, I almost had to look up more chemical names, but enough came to my head. ;

SarahA, that's a perfect sense to get from it! Very much how it was intended.

Karen, thanks!

Walking Man, yes, a dismal approach to life and the Earth. Preserved, but dead.

Sere, beautiful and sad is another great pairing! And thanks for focusing on the photograph. It started as a usual-type macro shot where I was trying to get close and personal with the insect. But then, Photoshop has this curious "plastic wrap" effect. It has limited usefulness, but I can't resist monkeying with it sometimes....

Laurel, it really gives a sense of being closed-in and frozen. Imprisonment.