Time will tell if it was worth it, but I spent a lot of time on this. Subject is certainly worth it, just don't know if the treatment works. Feel it doesn't, let me know, ok? Thanks!! <3

Cicadas keep running bad Mozart up

too many scales. Oxymoronic d-e-d-e-e-e,

d-e-d-e-e-e s his highest high did not ink.

To think of laboring d after d, e after e,

only to have human nerves jump

on the hammers in our been-and-heard ears

not to anvil and stirrup our drums awake.

Yes, and we all know it is our cacophony

making Earth shake. Worse, we pound

out more decibels with each breath. Between

frantic Delete, Delete, Deletes

or the hard drive will crash, and we’ll be left

disconnected under a mountain of bad CD’s.



In short, all our cicada friends’ hard-made racket

crashes unheard, like the shriek of the tree

in an unmoving forest.   Te-hee, te-hee,

fireflies sign at Ye Steamye Nighte Bar

as they slosh down spirits for the sparkle to play

Flashlight, Flashlight, who’s-got-the-Flashlight.

For them, children ooh and run for jars

as grown-ups wink over lightning bug tales

on porches and patios with matching bulbs,

hoping their gold may buy peace

they realize slipped off with the last island

to lose to the boombox, cellphone and Web.



Were our heads not splitting from self-made noise,

the Merce Cunninghams of the insect world

could teach us to listen, not judge.



(c) Phyllis Jean Green, July, 2004