Connie Jordan Green lives on a farm in East Tennessee where she writes and gardens.  She is the author of two award-winning novels for young people (The War at Home and Emmy) and two books of poetry (Slow Children Playing and Regret Comes to Tea). Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Since 1978 she has written a weekly newspaper column for The Loudon County News Herald. She leads writing workshops and teaches writing and literature courses for Oak Ridge Institute of Continued Studies.

CICADAS


Like armored warriors
they signal one another,
sawing out a song
through the sticky day,
their new-found skin
green and black,
slick-looking and strange.
They hang their armor
on tree trunks, claws
grip bark, an empty shell
remembering what it was like
to pulse with life.
Eyes on stilts, they sing
for a mate, their days
above ground more brief
than Persephone’s,
the long sleep
a small death they have
escaped, earth a tomb
they can never forget.

 

 

 

 

 

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