Can you Still Hear Them?

by LEONORA SIMONOVIS

A fungus is annihilating batrachians all over the globe,
including those that make Venezuelan evenings sweeter 
with their song.
—Caracas Chronicles

I’ve never asked if you can also hear them 
in your dreams. If, like me, you wonder 

how the voice of one less caw-kee upsets 
the whole choir. Once, mother beckoned 

from the far side of the patio, palm open, 
a speckled brown frog the size of her 

thumbnail staring up at her. This little one has 
the power to call Night into being, to keep fear 

away. She put the frog on my palm: belly 
moist, smooth, a pulse quicker than my own. 

I wanted to keep them but didn’t. Every 
afternoon I’d go back to see if they’d appear. 

Once, they did. But mostly, they sang and sang 
into the night. Now, as they disappear 

one by one, I call my aunts just to hear 
them in the background. Faint, but still there.