The Call of the Cicadas

It used to be music to my ear and soul. It still is, but now it hurts me with sorrow. With long lost memories and people. It’s an elegy for the dead. The silence is too much, the wind equally so. It engulfs me with a loneliness that is damning. I sit on the on the porch and listen.

It’s dusk and I’m in our garden. The trees, plants and flowers are silhouettes that stand guard in silence. A garden that has remained evergreen and colourful over the years, decades, under the watchful eye and tender loving care of my father. A garden where we ran barefoot and free, our imagination running riot. My two sons do so now. It was a space that enjoyed our attention and energies in full, before the digital age, before cyber space and streaming giants threatened its existence.

A lonely firefly or two lend their dim brightness to that of the stars that are looking down. I can remember when hundreds stabbed the darkness with their light many, many decades ago. I wonder if these creatures are endangered now and why? But they are truly scarce. I wonder if my grandparents, and other loved ones are looking down upon me from the stars. I’d like to think they are. The thought is comforting. They used to be right next to me in the same garden so many moons ago, sharing hugs, laughs and causal banter.

A lonely sky rocket streaks across the night sky and explodes with a distant bang like a shooting star heading back to space. It’s Christmas time. A dog howls in the distance, perturbed by the exploding firework no doubt. Then it’s back to silence, back to the Cicadas. Both are the same. The gentle hum of Buddhist pirith (chants) wafts across the night sky, from the temple next door. They blend with the silence, they are the same too. Nothing usurps the other. There is harmony; there is also sorrow.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, a tear trembles on the edge. I allow it to fall freely. I don’t interrupt the countless others that follow. It is a fitting tribute to the moment. A strange calmness flows in as nature reasserts its authority.