Infection

by Amanda Trout

 

     —"But there's also something else unusual about it. There's this hyper-sexualized behavior. So, males [...] they'll continue to try and mate with females — unsuccessfully, because again, their back end is a fungus. But they'll also pretend to be females to get males to come to them. And that doubles the number of cicadas that an infected individual comes in contact with." Dr. Michael Kasson on parasitic fungus Massospora cicadina.

 

Before my emergence, I suckle sap and pine

pen sonnets in my free time. I perfect the art

of the perfect phantom wing tilt and feel faint

movement of undergrown nubs against chitin

 

shell. Sell yourself as my spine breaks to sky. I feel 

the surge to adult buzz my veins, skip adolescence

completely. My body is sexy, enough I might sing

if I try hard enough, at least fake a simple melody,  

 

slip under man after man like second skin and wriggle

body under body like all partners are sexperts, like sun,

like drug, like drunk on nymphomania, like this high

is all you’ve ever needed will ever need.

 

When the spores clear, I see 

my body

for the parasite-

gouged husk it has become.