Grasshopper revision | David Berman

If the fable of “The grasshopper and the ants” was amended so that the world ended before the turn of winter, then the grasshopper would have been wiser and the moral would have vindicated him. In a story, the location of the ending is very deliberate.

From David Berman’s December 1994 essay/poem/riff “Clip-On Tie,” which could be read as a Christmas story, if you like.

“Neither Beast Nor Bird” (Illustrated Fable, 1887)

(From The Baby’s Own Aesop: Being the Fables Condensed in Rhyme, With Portable Morals Pictorially Pointed by Walter Crane. Engraved and Printed in Colours By Edmund Evans. 1887. Via the LOC).