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