Cicada Lemonader

There is nothing like the sound of the cicada, popularly known as ‘heat bug’ around these parts, to rev one’s summer engines. Here in New England, our cicadas are the annual kind. Their zing is heard sporadically during the day. Unlike, say Charlottesville VA, where the cicadas are more prevalent, and maybe periodical. Still, when one of them goes off, you feel a whole lot hotter.

Sonnet August Six

Heat bugs in August sound electric. This skylight
generations charged then discharged. Daily
tree leaf capillaries. Lightning brightly
jagged bark of oak trees brazed by bolts
in smoke and ozone. Rising in the strike
the grass burnt. Sun burnt hazy sunburst skyline
blaze of amazing flame the scorch. The searing
high voltage and shockwave the current of smoldering daytime.
Cicada transformer our locus of lemony time
blue river of cool. The lake of splash and sway
an ocean of salt-spray air-conditioning.
The shadow play of mountain arctic zephyr
foreshadowing the runaway. Wind and chill
of instant thunderstorm and zigzag lightning thrill.

~Son Rivers 2005