Grasshopper

(for my brother Kurt, disabled by MS)

when you are laying your eggs

you are exposed to danger

you are not gathering food

you are not defended, wise

in the ways of middle age

or youth: yours is the wisdom

of life's last, greatest stage

when walking into death

on tired legs, you pause to leave life

beneath a chosen stone

in the drying road, body shaken

by winds from out of time

doing the necessary work -- oh gold

body, oh green-grey wings, oh grace