Either Audible or Visible—You Can’t Have Both Together
The cicada is
Seen when it stops crying
Finally—and flies.
~ Shiki
The insect does its dry annoyance
Of noise, but, not until it flaps its wings
To fly away, the best clairvoyance
Will ever find him where he brittle sings.
You search and search but never have a chance
To ascertain his hidden place until
He bashes out his blundering odd dance
Across the air. While chirring he is still,
So still among the others as they bang
On endlessly, that you will never see
Him, only hear him. With the others’ clang,
Clang, clanging clangs, he might as well not be.
He hides by being loud among his crowd.
He’s dead to us inside his shouting shroud.
~ Phillip Whidden