Life of the Grasshopper

Always an invalid
he wanders through the field
on green crutches.

Since five o'clock
the stream from a star
has filled the grasshopper's tiny pitcher.

A laborer, he fishes
each day with his antenna
in rivers of air.

A misanthrope, at night
he hangs the flicker of his chirp
in a house of grass.

Leaf rolled up and alive,
the grasshopper keeps the music
of the world written inside!

translated by Steven Ford Brown

Copyright © 2003 Jorge Carrera Andrade, Steven Ford Brown (tr) All rights reserved
from Century of the Death of the Rose
NewSouth Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission