May Song

May time and mating time:  the croaking crew

of frogs demands an endless course of flies,

the flies breed wildly and the mullet rise:

the Chain of Being and the food chain too.

Spring's on the loose:  the shrill cicada feels

its pull, the dragonfly absorbs its rays.

A million voices cry, "More days!  More days!"

and heaven answers them, "No deals.  No deals."

Gail White

From The Price of Everything, The Edwin Mellen
Press, © 2001.  Originally printed in Edge City
Review.  Reprinted by permission of the author.