The fifth poem in this series—and my third and final poem published in Global Poemic—is “Brood X Symphony (The 17-Year Cicadas)” [https://globalpoemic.wordpress.com/2021/07/12/brood-x-symphony-the-17-year-cicadas/]. It appeared on July 12, 2021, during the Covid pandemic, but its subject was a different scourge I was facing that summer: the dreaded 17-year cicadas!
In my lifetime, I had already encountered these strange bugs three times: when I was a graduating high school senior in 1970; and twice during my working years, 1987 and 2004. Each time, my reaction had been some level of irrational fear, ranging from carrying an umbrella to prevent them from landing in my hair (1970), to rearranging my work schedule to avoid their peak hours of flying blindly. If I’m still around the next time, I’ll be 85 years old.
Global Poemic is a limited-series online journal, published from May 2020 to August 2021, as a space for poets worldwide to chronicle their experience of this once-in-a-lifetime Covid Pandemic. It is still available to read in full, via Duotrope. Links to individual poems may still be available on the original WordPress website.
This reading was recorded on November 10, 2022.
Bonus: More Fun Cicada Facts!
Interview with an entomologist about the 2021 Brood X cycle [(804) A Cornell scientist breaks down the brood X cicada – YouTube]
Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731-October 19, 1806), a Maryland-born African astronomer and surveyor, is credited with calculating the 17-year cycle of the Brood X cicadas in 1800! [Benjamin Banneker – Wikipedia].
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