The Cicadas Were Men Once

The lesser
Intensity in the dappling
Of heat
Over the thirty-year
Maple:
The
Cicadas were men
Once and rattle dryly upon
The dust of
Heat the piebald handwriting:
Men once
Who sang down the dusky day
And up
The strong-mint evening, a blue jay
Flits off,
Shadow to tree, and the summer
Insects described as high-away
Aeroplanes or the
Ghosts of pilots sink
Under layers of dappled sun

A crow is crying: also, he was
Once a man all Things of
Hidden noise came of
Summer men too
Frightened to
Sing.