r. and mom visited yesterday and both checked on their plants. r. who notices the smallest things asked did you put this here? i didn't even notice the cicada husk on the snake plant, though i had watered it a couple of times since i found the live cicada looking out the window. it didn't occur to me that the cicada had not only wandered in here to my borrowed aerie on the 15th floor, the cicada had wandered up here to be born. and to be released by me from the fire escape and to hum and whir back down to the trees on new wings. i'm thrilled that this critter who came from underground came to visit me, and that r. and mom came to show the origin story. why did one magicicada come so far to cling to the plant i'm watching and find release, from the husk that was home, and again from my hand through the door to the fire escape? i sometimes think that everything is random in life, and at the same time that nothing is. either way is wonder.

maybe i will find home. maybe i shall be released.


postscript. 

r. said, texted rather, before she read the above, wondering if the cicada came out of the potted ground of the snake plant. i think it was her mom's before. maybe the cicada was a 17 year kind and had burrowed down 17 years ago in the basement in skokie. whether it came out of the ground of the midway plaisance or the snake plant i said, it was quite a journey.