CRICKETS
(A DEFENSE AND ILLUSTRATION OF POETRY)
I retake an allusion by crickets:
their murmur is hopeless,
the chattering of their elytra
is of no use whatsoever.
Yet if not for the cryptic signal
they broadcast to one another
(for crickets) night would
not be night.
José Emilio Pacheco
Translated by Katherine M. Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez