What's That Horrible Sound?

If you live in the South, go outside and listen.

What’s That Horrible Sound?

 

By Elton Camp

 

If anywhere in the South you reside,

You’ll hear it now if you go outside

From every direction it seems to come

That loud, incessant maddening hum

 

On the trunks of the trees you will find

The brown exoskeletons they left behind

A metamorphosis the insects underwent

So that wings and red eyes nature sent

 

It’s the males that now call out so loud

They’re finally able to mate, so are proud

Thirteen years they spent in the ground

Till, at last, mating time has come around

 

But after mating, they live only a few days

In the small tree branches her eggs she lays

Tips of the branches die and fall to the ground

Offspring, for thirteen years, a tree root found

 

From the Cicada we have really nothing to fear

They won’t sting or bite even if we come near

Much worse things there certainly could be

Than millions of Cicadas singing in the tree