Swarms of Grasshoppers Invade Las Vegas
- Swarms of Grasshoppers Invade Las Vegas
"Vast swarms of the insects are being drawn to the neon lights of Sin City—but they are not dangerous."
-BBC News July 31, 2019
We are dangerous, we climbthirty-two stories, breakout windows and aim:our arms fullof automatic rifles.
We glitter with brokenglass and we blockadedoorways for time;we angle more bulletsat the fish in our barrel,who people this parking lot.
We are not attractedto neon, but to the newsinfamy is a type of love:an infinite tattoounexplainable, a truth.
We drag bodies downto concrete, grass,asphalt, with holesthe size of insects;blood buzz heartssearch out a new queen.
We are dangerous: we dieand return; we die andspread; we die andswarm; we die andeat the nest we warm. [End Page 35]
Amelia Martens is the author of The Spoons in the Grass are There To Dig a Moat (Sarabande Books, 2016), and four chapbooks. In 2019, she received an Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council. She co-curates the Rivertown Reading Series, Exit 7, and two awesome daughters.
