Downstream
the dying cricket tries to sing but its wings
are too wet to make a sound. It struggles to reach
the edge of a furled bay leaf also caught in the swift-moving current
but the leaf is carried away too fast for the cricket to reach.
Overhead, tiny gnats dip and glide just above the surface
of the water, they follow the cricket’s tiny body
all the way downstream where it’s washed up on shore
crumpled and dead and safe to bury eggs in. The sun
will eventually dry the thin, black wings and legs, the wind
will push and pull at the cricket’s hollow remains and make
these sad little parts
sing one last time.
Holly Day’s newest books are The Tooth is the Largest Organ in the Human Body (Anaphora Literary Press), Book of Beasts (Weasel Press), Bound in Ice (Shanti Arts) and Music Composition for Dummies (Wiley).