The Cricket’s Song

by Doug Pugh

The cricket sings
While somnolent shimmers
Play chase
As the sun bakes down,
Its toll exacting
Retribution in silence:
Too heated
To move,
To live,
To breathe;
But still
The cricket sings.

Nature pants
In shallow whispers,
Afraid the sun
Will see
And burn
That bit more in spite
And defiance,
Basking in aridity.

The lizards flicker
And fur and feather
Crawl into the
Darkest of shade,
And still
The cricket sings
Its turbulent rasp
So shrill
In glee-expounding life
Broadcasting its knowledge
That the sun is deaf
And the words pass by
Though noise is heard
And the world
Sleeps along.

Miscomprehension
To the joy
Of the vocal warrior
As the cricket sings.