Found most places on Earth, with erratic flight
Firefly friends, we see you at night,
Flashing your codes in amber, blue, green & white,
Famous for glowing with magical light,
Flying any hour, like hand of sleight,
Falling upon foliage, you alight,
Filling our world with a wondrous sight.
Falling night on the woods
Frames ebony onyx canvas
Flares with firefly flicker
Fresco of living light lattice
Flung far in deep darkness
Flashy sky descends on land
Fills it with twinkling stars
Glass,
traps
one spark
in the ferns,
spirits of the dead,
tethered above the wet creek bed,
guiding the departed through the mangrove roots tonight.
They hover in the liminal space between the living and the silent wet bush graves.
We did not know we caught a wandering spirit alive, glowing with the pale green light of someone trying to find their way through the gully.
Unscrewing the cold rim of the glass I watched the little ancestor crawl out across my thumb to hesitate a moment in the damp night air before heading upwards into the canopy towards the guiding southern stars.
night-soft glow~
single firefly drifts,
tiny star
hovering
as though it carries secrets
meant only for me.
you inspire this man that is shy,
When i now rile and curse
From my head to the end of my skirts
and fear that i may fall dry ahead
Cry of debt before my death
I am be-mused, yet not be-fogged
when i see you anew under same moonlight
and not see a bug
I am a small lantern
in a vast, breathing dark~
a pulse of light
that remembers itself
only when the night
leans close enough
to ask.
I feel the world
in flickers~
the hush of grass bending,
the cool brush of dusk
against my wings,
the way shadows soften
when I rise.
My glow is not constant.
It is a pulse,
a question,
a brief confession
to the sky.
I shine
because something inside me
refuses to stay hidden.
I drift between branches,
a wandering ember,
watching humans
mistake me for magic
when really
I am only trying
to be seen.
The night carries me~
a cradle of crickets,
a chorus of quiet things
that know how to listen.
In their company,
my small light
feels enough.
And when I land
on a child’s open hand,
I feel wonder
rise like warm air~
a soft recognition
that even the smallest spark
can change the shape
of darkness.
I glow
because it is my nature.
I glow
because the world
is gentler
when something shines.
I glow
because for one brief moment
I can show you
how even a tiny life
can light its own way.
I've never seen a firefly.
No, I've never looked one in the eye.
I don't know why.
Could it be
because of the place I live, maybe,
that I'll never see
a lightning bug?
So, I look down and shrug.
I think I need a hug.
If your days lack warmth, and your nights grow cold.
If you lose all hope, from your fate untold.
May my life be short! Like a firefly's light.
My spirit reborn, with all of love’s might.
Inspired by: If your world had no warm sun - Neo Hou
first sight delight
fouls owls howling
mate chase invite
as bats awake
hunting their prey
making love babes
bright firefly
attract with light
white in the night
nocturnal love flight
procreation
painting black sky
Eyes lit bright as a night firefly’s
So beautiful so tenderly you gaze
Up above watching the starry sky
Cranberry lips parted and amazed
The moon is a glowing sole pearl
Dancing in velvety onyx clouds
Hard to imagine anything in this world
As beautiful as it or you right now
There is a ease how you talk to me
We are threads from the same cloth
Your hair blowing in navy blue breeze
Like your words so fresh and soft
Walk with me on the green grassy sea
Merge into a deep appreciation of peace
I followed a firefly
that winked at me like it knew a secret
and drifted toward the crooked woods.
A mossy path unrolled itself,
inviting my hesitant footsteps
as if it had been waiting all along.
At the clearing’s heart,
a tiny door glimmered in a tree~
and when I knocked, it opened.
Some luck arrives wearing magic.
Lone wee firefly,
you fast flit by
in the dark sky.
A night endowed
again allowed
a pearl so proud.
Through gauzy night,
mere blink of light,
wandering flight.
Flickering mid-
shadows you hid.
Wholly forbid.
Lull of the moon,
you're so attuned
to warmth in June.
On steeples, leaf
in disbelief
in darkness thief.
Firefly flashes
in the dusky, dark twilight.
Hello! I am here!
Winner 8th Place contest 1457 Brian Strand (3/30/26)
Twinkling lightning bugs
Condensing synchronically
Luminesce dusk fields.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At dusk, the meadow exhales
its first soft pulses of light~
tiny lanterns adrift
in the Missouri dark.
I cup my hands like a beggar,
but these are gifts
that cannot be kept.
Their glow licks my fingers,
brief as a breath held too long,
then fades into the night’s
hungry mouth.
What is it to hold
something so fleeting?
A moment.
A match struck
and blown out.
Still, I chase them~
not to possess,
but to feel
their golden tremor~
that tiny miracle
lighting up the
nighttime sky.
a related memoir vignetted can be read at: poetrysoup.com/short_stories/catching_lightning_bugs_13624
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