“Cicadas.”

insect_musicians_WilHershberger_AnnualCicadaEmergent_SmallWorldSpectaculars

Finally, after nine years
of snouting through darkness
he inches up scarred bark
and cuts loose the yammer of desire:

the piercing one note of a jackhammer,
vibrating like a slow bolt of lightning
splitting the air
and leaving a smell like burnt tar paper.

Now it says Now it says Now
clinging with six clawed legs
and close by, a she like a withered ear,
a shed leaf brown and veined,
shivers in sync and moves closer.

This is it, time is short, death is near, but first,
first, first, first
in the hot sun, searing all day long
in a month that has no name:

this annoying noise of love. This maddening racket.
This – admit it – song.

Poem: Margaret Atwood

Photo: Wil Hershberger, Annual Cicada Emergent
Swamp Cicada, Tibicen chloromea, sheeding
the last juvenile exoskeleton and emerging as an adult. Princeton, New Jersy, USA.


Midsommar Celebration NYC

Yesterday, the Swedish Consulate in NYC hosted a Midsommar Celebration in Battery Park City, downtown Manhattan. dievca biked down after work to see the chaos.Β  According to her friend, it was quite similar to what goes on in Sweden for Midsommar. Singing, dancing, eating, drinking while wearing floral crowns. A celebration of the Earth, topped off with the raising of the phallic Maypole (something about balls and a cock piercing Mother Earth. etc.)

It was too crazy to try to get food, so a bodega further uptown offered simple fair and the Hudson River offered a spectacular view.

Today, dievca is working and then heading out to watch the Germany/Sweden World Cup game. Afterward. dievca is hosting a small cocktail party for her visiting friend.

Have a fabulous, close to Midsommar Saturday. πŸ₯‚πŸ₯ƒπŸΈπŸΊ

Photos: dievca 06/2018 Battery Park