Cicada





Cumulus male

at work in the cottonwood

calling a lover;


his circadian belly

primed to awaken

one sleeping female.


Oven-breath from Coho

is temperature of his sex call:

one hundred and ten


ecstatic frizz-songs

underscore broad-headed yearning

in a chain letter


where buzz begets buzz.

Where all males sing at once

in a dream of electric coitus:


the old tale

of consummation’s wonder

that end’s in raspy death

on a red desert floor.