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Stridulation Sonnet

Jessica Jacobs on

Published in Poem Of The Day

Tiger beetles, crickets, velvet ants, all
know the useful friction of part on part,
how rub of wing to leg, plectrum to file,
marks territories, summons mates. How

a lip rasped over finely tined ridges can
play sweet as a needle on vinyl. But
sometimes a lone body is insufficient.
So the sapsucker drums chimney flashing

for our amped-up morning reveille. Or,
later, home again, the wind's papery
come hither through the locust leaves. The roof
arcing its tin back to meet the rain.

The bed's soft creak as I roll to my side.
What sounds will your body make against mine?


About this poem
"I wrote this poem during a summer visit to Asheville, N.C., where there was a tremendous thunderstorm nearly every night, followed by a chorus of crickets. From my wife, Nickole Brown, a poet somewhat obsessed with insects, I learned these chirps signal either a warning from one male to another, an intended seduction or a triumphant mating. So what could be more sensual and sonnet-worthy than that-a night holed up beneath a tin roof, listening first to the sky open up, then a thousand small creatures crying out for each other?"
-Jessica Jacobs

About Jessica Jacobs
Jessica Jacobs is the author of "Pelvis with Distance" (White Pine Press, 2015). She teaches at Hendrix College and lives in Little Rock, Ark.

***
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2015 Jessica Jacobs. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate







 


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