Day or

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I dare you to watch a firefly blink
Without falling into the
Absence of light
As it changes position.
Stars do this if you watch long enough
And stand in the right spot.
At least, that's what we've been told.
Watch, and fall, and gasp for breath.
Open your eyes to a late June sky
In a valley that is no valley.
Crickets and frogs and owls and all the nocturnal cries
Threaten to sing you to sleep
If only you could stop chasing the light,
If only the grass could stop hugging your bare feet,
If only the miracle of missing every nettle and thorn
In three square acres didn't keep you dancing with the milky way
And her daughters here on earth.
If only the smell of the breeze through fields of corn and beans and wheat and grass
And trees didn't harmonize with the laughter of you and your sisters and your brother
And your Mother and the whole chorus of everyone who loved you
Before you knew you had to grow up
And bottle the light of fireflies
To sustain you in the long walk
They'd been conditioning you for all along.
Is that what manna is made of?
The light of fireflies?
The laughter of loved ones?
Grass that feels like cool water and a
Lover's caress at the same time?
We were too young to be able to describe it.
All we knew is with a running start, you could
Slide for what felt for miles and it smelled like
Rain even though if you looked up, you could see a
Galaxy of tiny diamonds.
Did your heart break
When he told you how long it would take to reach even the closest
Of those sparkling
Tears?
Don't remember if ours did,
But hearts that young are plastic
Just like minds.
And I swear to God, space must be as well
If I could just think a little harder.
Fireflies are magic or a distraction.
Looking out my window, I can't tell which.
Someone, some where, some time, learned to bottle a feeling
And they filled the moon with its light.
Give me a sip and I'll stay awake until I find myself
Spinning around a fiery new teardrop
And the Earth is lost in the glittering distance.
If we are lucky,
Our children's children's
Children
Will look up and wonder
If their forebears were fireflies
Who got lost in the sky.