Summer Day

In the morning when I go downstairs the crickets are still chirping and the first thing I do is check those grasshoppers the kids caught the day before to see if they're still alive and sure enough they're lying on their backs black stuff oozing from their mouths though their legs are still moving crawling at the air and I'm thinking we do not need a bunch of dead bugs in this house, I've got to get them outside and let them go but these grasshoppers are intimidating creatures as large as parakeets and oh how I am loathe to touch them. Amphibians and reptiles I can mostly handle but not arthropods. Anyway this is something the kids should do if they're to learn any responsibility but it's a Saturday and they're still sleeping and waking them up now would cut into my quiet time so I steel myself knowing there are times when a father must take action and this is one of them. I remove the cover and pick up a couple of them and am trying to open the sliding glass door with my foot to release them on the deck so they can go join the crickets or possibly eat them when the grasshoppers I'm clutching kick my wrists with stunning force and break free and the remaining grasshoppers burst from the container and fly about the kitchen making clicking sounds and banging against the walls each one gleaming like a summer day and all the commotion wakes the kids who come charging down and now they're leaping with the grasshoppers legs clicking and there goes my time before the sun.