Essential Jazz

I heard my first cicada last week. They're not as noisy or as many as last year. I always know the end of summer is coming with their appearance. These are the cicadas that I'm used to, not the lesser numbers this year.

Essential Jazz

Overpowering even the sound

of semis, cicada cacophony rules:

midsummer a festival.

Their cousins, the crickets, continue

to thrum counterpoint.

The katydids' blare barely extends

beyond the siesta stretch. Short lives

(smoking? drinking? risky actions?)

mean these players perform 

                   fettered by a tight schedule.

The brassy headliners dominate

with their lusty tremolo during daylight

                                                   hours.

The grasshoppers, reclaim the main

stage overnight, play back-up resonance

for these bassists while they fiddle.

Come mid-August and contented

that the racketeers have vacated the venue,

the hoppers will continue to riff into late fall,

                                                               sedately. 

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor