The Insect Elite
This year’s cicadas threaten to emerge
Humongously. If you stand too close by,
Expect a drenching when they get the urge—
It won’t be droplets falling from your sky.
No human but a scientist could think
Success means getting peed on as you cry,
“Eureka! I have found the missing link
Connecting giant beasts to lesser fry:
These insects have evolved to take a leak
Efficiently in carefree spurts, despite
Low sustenance from sap and small physique
Implying they should pee in droplets” … Might
Their spurting indicate they want to be
Elite?—They’re quite the jet set when they pee!
Mike Mesterton-Gibbons is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Florida State University who has returned to live in his native England. His acrostic sonnets have appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Better Than Starbucks, The Creativity Webzine, Current Conservation, the Ekphrastic Review, Grand Little Things, Light, Lighten Up Online, MONO, the New Verse News, Oddball Magazine, Rat’s Ass Review, the Satirist, the Washington Post and WestWard Quarterly. The poem was prompted by two NPR stories, “Scientists studied how cicadas pee. Their insights could shed light on fluid dynamics” and “Why Cicadas Power Spray Their Pee.”