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The cicadas are coming and other poems (7 Quick Takes)

April 24, 2021
By Rita Buettner
Catholic Review
Filed Under: Blog, Cicadas, Commentary, Open Window

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For National Poetry Month, I’m writing my weekly 7 Quick Takes as 7 Quick-to-read Poems. I had no idea how many forms of poetry there are! I hope you enjoy them.

Cicadas Are Coming (Ghazal)

So much time has passed since we said, “Look, cicadas!”
Yes, seventeen years is what you took, cicadas.

Just as the weather warms and outdoors beckons,
We might want to find an indoor nook, cicadas.

With beady eyes and thin veined wings you’ll come,
With whir, buzz…taste for those who cook cicadas?

You’ll land on everyone and everything and make your mark,
While dropping from the branches that you shook, cicadas.

Creep from your holes and leave your shells behind,
Make your historic visit by the book, cicadas.

So, make yourselves at home, but please don’t stay.
Go quickly as you came, just like a crook, cicadas.

An Epitaph

Here lies a house that once was sort of clean,
Not that it ever shone with quite a dazzling sheen.
But now it’s more a morning frat house scene,
The impact of this months-long quarantine.

Soup (Nonet)

I know someone who doesn’t like soup.
How is that even possible?
We enjoy soup every day.
Soup is so delicious.
Flavored broth and meat,
Sometimes seafood…
Look, veggies!
Yummy
Soup.

Finch Frenzy (Palindrome)

Flapping wings
With feathers carrying angels
Perch to perch
Then around again circling,
Chirping, meeping, singing,
Voice to voice
Call and answer,
Finchy whirlwind
~Frenzy~
Whirlwind
Finchy answer and call,
Voice to voice
Singing, meeping, chirping,
Circling again around then
Perch to perch
Angels carrying
Feathers
With wings flapping.

Honored and Humble (Tanka)

My eighth grader niece:
The honor society
Invites her to join
And she politely declines
With humility and grace.

A Challenge (Clerihew)

Have you met my dear sister Treasa,
Whose house is not ever a mess-a.
She reads and homeschools
And knows clerihew rules.

Spring (Cinquain)

Springtime
Flowers blooming
Bring on the allergies
With the gorgeous bursts of color
New life.

Find more quick takes on Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and have a wonderful weekend!

Copyright © 2021 Catholic Review Media

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Rita Buettner

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