Consider a moment
what the cicada knows—
take your time
growing in soil rich
with the bodies
that came before you.
Make the days last
until they’re done. Stay
out of trouble
until you forget what you know
and long for the beginning: remember
how fresh the new world was?
Listen. Emerge
as swarm. Shed your first body
& sing, throw a party
as the last defense of your species.
It would be enough
to put on a good show,
to be the last thing They see
at the end, stumbling home:
two red eyes in the dark, dawning.