Up here I hear best listening in silence
There’s no air to form sounds in space
Yet you may field messages from other worlds
On this cold night sharp as daggers
I hear the cicadas chanting
Insects piping across the planet
Voices of a million species
Asking to be heard
Beyond baying truck horns
Screaming jet engines
Shouts of victorious citizens
Sifting the trash for food
Now beneath my frozen eyes
My electric ears hear it all
A pin dropped through vacuum
Missiles skirting forests
The low, sonorous songs of stars
Intelligent frequencies far, far off
Life beyond this life