Summer's swan song. August. The locusts, or cicadas if you prefer, have been in full song for weeks. Every evening the symphony begins. First, in the large cottonwood over by the road, a lone locust begins his solo. Which is answered by a baritone from yonder maple. Soon, the tenors join in, and a chorus of resonating voices chime in, in a grand crescendo, to a triple forte and then, oh so poco-a-poco to a whispered mezzo-soprano. And then, the soloist begins again, and they all join in and the forest is alive with voices, pulsating, pulsating, and then softer and softer until only the soloist is left to finish the refrain. Last night, the soloist began the evening performance. And in his grand finale, his voice grew softer and softer.......with longer pauses between the notes....slower and slower......like the spokes of a wheel slowly winding to a stop. 'Whaaawwmmmm..........whHHaawwmm.....wwwhhaAAAmmm......wwhhaammm....wwhaammm...........whaaam..........................whammmmm............................whmmmmm.' It was a magnificent performance, with the last note only a murmur. I found the soloist this morning, on the tree branch he used as his podium, his body in it's final pose of life, singing summer's swansong. I often marvel at these creatures. How they are only here for such a short while, yet while they exist, they sing as loudly as they can, filling the atmosphere with their cacaphony of their desire for continuance. I think we could take a few lessons from the locusts.......because in the relativity of time, we too are only here for a short while. We should sing as loudly as we can, and lift our voices to heaven with song and mirth and hope eternal for our continuance. And allow the wind to carry those pulsations to proclaim that we were indeed here, if only for our own summer, before our own voices are ceased and we return to the dust we came from. We should all, sing so loudly.

"Summer's swan song." © Wauhilau as posted in
alt.discuss.clubs.public.talk.friends.owizzardo
on Sat, Aug 18, 2007, 11:28pm (EDT-3)






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