cicadas

September 25, 2012Rae SpencerLeave a comment

Cicadas

Youth taps through a labyrinth
Of root, exploring in blind stages
Each nymph counts, each instar
Molts toward the relentless percussion
Of age, where the last skin hardens
And splits at the nape, final
Form shrugging free to unfurl song
In heat, muscles tuned to the sun’s declining
Tenor, late summer’s desperate chorus
Clings to tired limbs that droop
With the weight of leaves past saving
A monotonous harvest of lust
Set to succumb after securing the eggs
Muffling them in summer’s golden pith

Predatory Stink Bugs

September 9, 2012Rae Spencer4 Comments

I believe these are Florida Predatory Stink Bug nymphs. I don’t know if they killed this cicada or found it already dead. Either way, their late-night feast created an eerie scene on the fence.

I am an amateur at identifying “true bugs”. Please comment to correct or confirm this ID!

More and More Cicadas (with another arachnophobia alert)

September 6, 2012Rae SpencerLeave a comment

The yard is littered with cicada molts. Dozens of them on the fence, in the irises, in the roses, and hanging from trees. They fall into cobwebs and sway in the breeze. Then the wind sweeps them away, making room for new waves of emergence.

Is it like this every year?

Have I been so blind? I don’t want to believe it. How could I have missed such a glorious swarm?

What’s more, how could I have walked past a cicada caught in a spider web without stopping to stare? I found another one today. This time the web belonged to a much smaller spider than yesterday’s garden giant.

I believe this summer has produced an extraordinarily large population of cicadas, though I have no proof.

For that matter, much of what I believe can’t be proven. So I’ll go ahead and say it with confidence–this summer has produced an extraordinarily large population of cicadas.

(Here’s a clip of the noise they make, their “song.” It’s loud, so you might want to reduce the volume on your speakers before playing.)

Blue Moon Friday (Arachnophobia Alert!)

August 31, 2012Rae Spencer8 Comments

The blue moon suits my mood. I’m tired and sluggish, ready to crawl off into some quiet corner and lose myself in a half-edited manuscript, one burdened with rambling paragraphs and boring verbs. It needs dragonflies.