Last Night I Passed A Cricket That

Last Night I Passed A Cricket That

Last night I passed a cricket that 

Was chirping in a patch of grass;

So, as I come again—guess what?

The same one, singing as I pass.

Could it be the same cricket now

Is singing in the bright sunlight

That makes me wonder over how

Its song has lasted over night?

My father knew my mother once

By Cricket as the name he’d call

That calls up in me the response

Of how it was when I was small.

My parents bought the cottage for

The summertime we came to stay

Along that lane as well which bore

Her nickname ‘Cricket’ by the way.

The first house being on your right

As you turned left it could explain

This cricket that chirped overnight;

The cottage built on Cricket Lane;

My mother’s name; my father’s love;

Those summers spent in Mahopac:

Which, hover somewhere up above,

In heaven—on my mind—way back.