School poster, Tiny Tots Publishing, 1966
It’s warm enough now, thank you.
Mid-June
New moon
Fireflies rise up
(Mosquitoes, too,
but it’s worth a few bites
to stand outside
near the fairy lights.)
Blink bright
from twilight shaded shrubs
awakening to night
As a mockingbird sings
first songs to hatchlings
under clouds of a storm
that passed without rain.
In the soft almost dark
I am standing in memory
with a bottle and lid
in my smooth little hands
chasing tiny fleet bulbs
butter yellow
yellow green
teasing me
on again
off again.
I capture a few bits of
exquisite light
brief life in flight
for a plaything lantern
extinguished by morning.
Then
everything seemed plentiful
and most things everlasting
like summer
Now
bugs of lightning
flies of fire
flickering
dwindling
each one matters
©2023 Suzanne McDermott
All rights reserved
Mid-June
New moon
Fireflies rise up
(Mosquitoes, too,
but it’s worth a few bites
to stand outside
near the fairy lights.)
Blink bright
from twilight shaded shrubs
awakening to night
As a mockingbird sings
first songs to hatchlings
under clouds of a storm
that passed without rain.
In the soft almost dark
I am standing in memory
with a bottle and lid
in my smooth little hands
chasing tiny fleet bulbs
butter yellow
yellow green
teasing me
on again
off again.
I capture a few bits of
exquisite light
brief life in flight
for a plaything lantern
extinguished by morning.
Then
everything seemed plentiful
and most things everlasting
like summer
Now
bugs of lightning
flies of fire
flickering
dwindling
each one matters
©2023 Suzanne McDermott
All rights reserved
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