A September Breakfast in the Piedmont

Photo by Antelope

A grasshopper sat on my toaster today,
Looking puzzled yet nonchalant.
How it got in my kitchen, it’s hard to say.
What on earth did the grasshopper want?

Across in the bin there were plenty of scraps
That a grasshopper normally likes.
Was choosing the toaster a cognitive lapse?
Didn’t burnt crumbs raise warning signs? Yikes!

Meanwhile through the front door the swallowtails fluttered
Around the abelia flowers.
The squirrels purred contentedly up in the trees,
Munching early fall acorns for hours.

And that’s where I let the small grasshopper run
After coaxing him under a glass.
He reminded me walls can be quickly undone,
For it’s Nature, not toasters, that lasts.

Paul Murphy

Paul Murphy became interested in Quakerism while attending Colgate University in 1978. He joined Morningside Meeting in Manhattan, N.Y., around 1980 and married his wife under the care of the meeting in 1985. They moved to the D.C. area and finally settled in Reston, Va., in 1992. He has been a member of Herndon (Va.) Meeting since then.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Maximum of 400 words or 2000 characters.

Comments on Friendsjournal.org may be used in the Forum of the print magazine and may be edited for length and clarity.