'Lonely, happy child'

Newly emerged adult cicada

— Photo by Ollllonate

“Parents open their shutters and call

the lonely, happy child home.

The child who hates silences talks and talks

of cicadas and the manes of horses.’’

— From “All Summer Long,’’ by Carol Frost (born 1948) in Lowell, Mass. She has taught at the Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson, Vt.

From 'the inner world'

Burdock, originally from Eurasia, and an invasive weed in North America.

“In the April sun that doesn’t yet smell, brown and red birds declaring hunger,

I appear from the inner world — a hell of beetles and voles — appointed to multiply.’’

— From “Burdock,’’ by Carol Frost (born 1948), Massachusetts-born American poet.