Thrush Poetry Journal
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Andrew Collard
​

Cicada Song
 
O the dog days the vertigo of earth      the sap the night the tyranny of jays
the mantises      the years I passed in darkness to elude them      winters
languishing above my head     O how many lives behind me now     the husk
the bumbling climb the crater      the holes we leave      the city of tubers
subterranean      the sickened leaves the helicopters     O forgotten
weeks my father sang      above the world of men      trimmed branches
power cables sandbox song descending      to the empires of brick and mortar
the side-yard the hose      the child demanding gulps the water
puddling in the grass around the halo of his muddy shoe      O harmony
the saw mower symphony of crickets      the percussive thudding
excavator dump truck traffic      whispering of the freeway love      O
can you hear me     I am calling you      between the branches
the primordial maple the wellspring bark       the arm I sprang from O
the fall the sudden stop      the cushion of the world beneath me      O    
the burrow and the boy who keeps watch from his window      O those years
the whole earth held me      the crusted husk the body I discarded
the frame I couldn’t recognize still clinging     to the rotting deck
the old life crouched and pleading      to remain erect      to mother me      O
the blanket I would draw over the houses the ants      the daddy longlegs
wobbling in the dew     the rain the hose the shouting children     O
to tuck them in my love      O can you hear me heavy magic of the wing the sap
the chorus of the trees      the wild vibration echo chamber of my chest  
the notes dispatched into the heat     the rushing water siren box-fan static
of the radio the womb my love      the space between the trees the sky that cries
ascend ascend      and all to find you darling all to know      I won’t return




Andrew Collard lives in Kalamazoo, MI, where he attends grad school and teaches. His recent poems can be found in Ploughshares, Crab Orchard Review, and Crazyhorse.




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