The Songs of Insects.(Poem)

 
THE SONGS OF INSECTS 
 
for my mother 
 
   This is your sleep-cure, 
   your wild acre-- 
 
   Move in closer, with micro-camera 
   and amplifier. 
 
   Thrust a crystal microphone 
   into the vines. 
 
   Shine mirrors on the boldest singers-- 
   those gladiators and shield-bearers. 
 
   And don't forget to register 
   the pulses of silence 
 
   between each chirp. 
   Now we are listening to the courtship 
 
   dance of the days 
   before your illness. 
 
   Before the radioactive iodine, 
   the lithium poisoning-- 
 
   none of this has happened yet. 
   Let's talk about wings--how one 
 
   has a file with teeth 
   and the other a ...