A Mid-Summer Night's Play Poem by Leonard Dabydeen

Headlamp beams
on fallen log
and a dot of glowing green
beams back
as a fishing spider
nods to the headlamp
with star-mangled eyes
in glaring delight.

Inside the crater of a dead log
there is a scratching song of Katydids
a nocturnal foray
in blossoming darkness
with oak and hickory and tulip trees
in soldier-stance salutation.

Bugs luminescent in ecstasy
innocent in a mating furor
and ritualistic by default
inside the crater
of a dead log
exuding spasms of life
with sexual appetite.

Watch termites dance
termites chatter
their conversation
is musical melodrama
in a lavender glow
of black light.

On the other side
of the dead log
longhorn beetles urinate
while camel cricket
flutter in a sugary bait.
there is no end
only continuation
of this mid-Summer night's play.