Apocalypse Night
by Barbara Lightner
–Aristophanes
They would
crack thunder,
erupt with the fierceness of volcanoes,
become power
in a righteousness of apocalypse.
What we got
was small rain,
the piss-conduit of frogs.
Listen! You can hear them now:
brekekekekex, koax, koax . . . .
Apocalypse Night — Barbara Lightner
* Greek playwright Aristophanes, known for his ridicule and savaging of contemporary society, used brekekekekex, koax, koax as the sound frogs made in his comedy of the same name.
Barbara Lightner is a 73-year old shameless agitator who began writing poetry in law school to escape the intolerable burden of death by law. She grew up in rural Tennessee among sharecroppers and cotton magnates and lived among killer whales and dolphins when on an island in Puget Sound. She taught Creative Writing at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon WA. She currently lives in Wisconsin where she owned and operated a 50-cow dairy farm; opened up and ran the Red Wheelbarrows Bookshop; and tried for political office where she failed miserably. The Madison WI Equal Opportunities Commission granted her its 20th Anniversary Award for Community Organizing in the Women’s Community. She has been known to write satire and parody.