I don’t kill crickets because I hate them.

I’ve never met a cricket.

Never been cut off by one on the highway.

I’ve never had a difference of opinion with one.

A cricket has never broken my sister’s heart.

I kill crickets because they are foreign to me. 

And because I don’t understand them.

Because they appear strange to my eyes and they frighten me.

I kill them because I viewed them as insignificant and for a moment

(if only one),

They made me feel helpless and scared.

I kill them for that.