acrididae

for a moment
change rubbed along
with hunger

then madness
and the many
swarmed in droves

in our second instar
instinct turned to orgy
surrendered to appetite

blame the insects
on dwindling ground
their wild flight
stripping the green
gorging it barren

who else
would lay waste
to green in the world?

our own hunger
with no counterpart
our swarming cities
where we crawl like ants
one upon the other
maggots in a corpse

locust or human
neither name describes
blindness or greed

© BH, 2020

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I think this was a challenge about locusts. You know, write something about human rapaciousness. I wrote it and never used it. But I considered the locust and the genus Acrididae. Grasshoppers gone crazy.

And, yes, there are parallels. Only the grasshoppers aren’t the ones who are like that of their own free will.