Taxonomy

Clouds of locusts descend over fields
and there are places that it isn't a plague 
but the lifting of hunger. They are delicious 
crisped up in oil, dipped in vinegar 
laced with black or chili pepper. 
During the war, the way the uncles tell it,
 only snails and frogs cupped by hands 
searching in the ditch saved them 
from wasting away into skin and bones. 
If you follow a trail of buzzing 
flies and find a carcass on the trail, 
look up and count the vultures 
arriving in procession. They don't
mean any harm, really. They're only there
to complete what started somewhere else.