What Do You Hear

I took my students outside Told them to be still They looked at me in wonder Outside of the classroom What was teacher up to this time? I whispered…. “What do you hear?” The booming of the cicadas In the pine trees on campus Drowned everything else out They smiled…. “Write….write about the sounds you hear Nature has a voice What does it tell you? How does it make you feel?” Today, as I lie on my living room couch Laptop on belly In my own world of words I look out the window To a over towering pine tree My little Africa, I’ve called it The branches curve like the western side Of that continent The tree is ALIVE Little cicadas….irrespective of size Boom a symphony Dying to be heard The rhythm of summer Maddening chorus Made by body vibrations Part of the mystical magic Of the pine scented trees that Surround my home I too need to be heard For some…the sound will be monotonous For others…a pulsating melody of a body, a mind set in motion By dreams, desires, wants, hopes, expectations By LIFE A short life span has the cicada…. I, too, am here today, gone tomorrow But I will not be silent You may like the “music” I make Think it heavenly Soothing Lulling Enough to make you dream sweet dreams Or You may find it aggravating Bothersome Vulgar and loud Whatever the case may be That’s me…. Singing in the tree of life Singing because I know I too will have to go But you cannot silence my voice I sing for me… I sing for you… I sing for anyone willing to hear The vibrations of my soul I sing because.... I'm dying to be heard I sing because Simply because.... I’m ALIVE… Eileen Manassian Ghali