THE CICADA

________________

Cicada Call
Cicada Kiss
Cicada Love
Cicada Life
Cicada Cantos
___________________

CICADA CALL

Kansas—
mindless up
there above

Here I am—
lurking down
here below
_____________

Waiting to—
be reborn
once again

Are we—
Emporians like
cicadas too?

CICADA KISS

Every 17—
years I come
back again

A part of me—
never left
my home
___________

The poet—
stayed and
hibernated

Here I am—
again, the me
you see

CICADA LOVE

The sad—
lonely droning
of the past

There on—
Neosho Street
back then

I remember—
those evenings
so calm

Cicadas calling—
so taken for
granted then

CICADA LIFE

Above ground—
the way it would
have been

If I’d had—
the patience to
stay, stay
____________

Living there—
on Constitution
Street still

Between the
high school
and college

CICADA CANTOS

But I left—
they’re all gone
and dead now

The alternate—
life of being a
Cicada muse
________________

Emerging—
to drone and
sing away

A hush—
clinging to
the elm trees