red eyed cicadas

I saw a cicada. It was red, with red eyes. Actually I saw two. One was looking very out of place on the Milwaukee Avenue sidewalk, truly cut off from any soil or trees. The second was in the beak of a bird about to be fed to the little birdies in the nest not far above my head. People who have lived in this area of the country for a long time remember the last time the cicadas came out a mere seventeen years ago. One young woman recalled when she was nine she gathered as many as she could into a bucket, they fascinated her and she was in bug heaven being a bit of a bug geek and all. Another young woman was thirteen when the cicadas were last here. One flew down her bathing suit, "That's the worst possible thing that can happen to a thirteen year old girl." she says. After trying to remember what it was like to be a thirteen year old girl, I tend to agree. The cicadas ruined her summer, they were gross.