On the sidewalk that runs along the edge of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, katydids and crickets spice the air with their late-summer songs. Sunset was hours ago, but the heat dallies, animating pulsing rasps and trills of insects hidden in tree branches. The pavement’s light has its own rhythm, a regular pattern from widely spaced streetlights along the park’s wall. The insects are drawn to the lights, gathering in the glowing orbs of leaves around each lamp. As I walk, sound and light rise and fall around me, a subtle swell.
The katydids sing with snappy, buzzing triplets – – repeated in a steady pulse, one per second. A few singers abbreviate the song to doublets and slow
