Cicada Song

Based on Aesop's Fable: The Ant and the Grasshopper (a.k.a. Cicada)

Cicada sang his constant tune
while nearby worker ants collected.
Opinion was that he neglected
winter stores, instead he crooned.

Cicada's singing filled the air;
below ground nests were slowly filled.
Ants toiled, not one crumb was spilled;
Cicada continued without a care.

When snow covered the ground and trees,
ants nestled below with winter store,
Cicada's feeble attempt to ask for
food, denied despite his pleas.

Solemnly Cicada admitted
his song was meant to entertain.
They never told him to refrain;
this justification was submitted.

The colony felt collective anguish,
all summer Cicada's symphony
in fact, eased their litany—ants
agreed to aid him, not to banish.

Then all were feasting, no one perished.
in summer, the ants would work along
with Cicada nearby, sharing his song—
at winter feast, the music cherished.