Member-only story
First Cicada
Sep 20, 2022
It’s June in the Georgia Piedmont —
magnolias fully in bloom, as if
someone had built trees from sheets of
dark green wax and tipped branches with
porcelain bowls of vanilla ice cream.
The blossoms push out a breeze of
fruity scent — and walking at seven AM
it smells like Coco Chanel left an
open bottle of Number Five perfume
on every front lawn.
Three miles later I walk down my
driveway to the back yard and hear
a metal rod being dragged over
rusty tin. It’s the first
cicada of the year.
MacQueen’s Quinterly 15, 2022
