What's That Horrible Sound

What’s That Horrible Sound?

By Elton Camp

If anywhere in the South you reside,
You’ll hear it now if you go outside
From every direction it seems to come
That loud, incessant maddening hum

On the trunks of the trees you will find
The brown exoskeletons they left behind
A metamorphosis the insects underwent
So that wings and red eyes nature sent

It’s the males that now call out so loud
They’re finally able to mate, so are proud
Thirteen years they spent in the ground
Till, at last, mating time has come around

But after mating, they live only a few days
In the small tree branches her eggs she lays
Tips of the branches die and fall to the ground
Offspring, for thirteen years, a tree root found

From the Cicada we have really nothing to fear
They won’t sting or bite even if we come near
Much worse things there certainly could be
Than millions of Cicadas singing in the tree
Copyright © | Year Posted 2011

Poem

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