Not Noise, Exactly

Not noise, exactly, though loud,

nor is it song, although

the elements of song

ring through its complex shout.

It is urgent, irrepressible,

strident, upwelling from the trees,

the evening, everywhere,

this cry, collective and triumphant,

of all these katydids,

at once imperative, instinctive,

purposeful, onrushing,

defining the Midwest evening

flinging its complicated sounds,

its hullabaloo, at the arriving stars.