it is a revelation
not one cicada
sounds the same

a butterfly sitting
by me admiring
something I lose

myself on such lightness
I use to tell children
to stop and to listen to

the songs  of
butterflies as
they nodded back

Cicadas singing
a nighttime lullaby
sending me off to sleep

I sit in a forest, with my back against a large oak,
and listen. Among rustling leaves and
whining cicadas I hear something else.
Something larger.

It's moving through the forest on jointed legs,
snapping the branches of century old trees.
An insect the size of a castle. It lets out a cry.
Sounds like a thousand year old whale's
death rattle. The cicadas stop whining and I
shudder.

It's heading to the lake to breed,
or to die. Their kind begins and ends in water.
Very morbid creatures, they are.

I can feel its steps shake the earth as it comes
closer and then I see it. Ten long, jointed legs
support the bulk of the thing. It towers over me,
silver. Its shell is a knight's armour and its red
eyes are the devil's. I stand up in awe of the
colossal bug as it lumbers past me, blocking the sun
and casting me in shadow for a while.

I light a cigarette and listen to it move through the forest.
Eventually, I can't hear it anymore and the cicadas
start to whine again.

She's an imp of a troublemaker fairy
they call her Heather Featherwand
she lives midst ancient ruins
    'pon Saturn's ringlets
          of ethereal ice & dust
you might get a peek at her
  neath a summertide night's dream,
she wears lavender and tangerine
  to blend in with the blazing cosmos,
 her pale peachy butterfly wings
    make sounds like katydids
     singing in the treetops and
         cicadas come to life at night
  further adding to her mysterious flight,
she took off one day, they say
    with the man in the moon
  and they've been starstruck ever after

the cicadas are singing
and the cats stare in quiet contemplation

a cool breeze passes through our window
and my heart perks at the sound of  your foot steps

love is knowing your steps
and greeting the rhythm of your breath
with wonder and gratitude