Fireflies

I realize this posting is overdue, and I know my travels initiated the delay but the airlines prolonged it. Something about a mechanical problem which repeatedly pushed back our departure time. Always a tad unnerving and more than slightly aggravating for those making further connections.

In any case, I'm back home after visiting my son and his family. Come nighttime fireflies lit up the backyard, a pleasure forgotten when living in a high rise. Their graceful meandering reminded me of another summer evening watching my then six-year-old granddaughter and these magical insects.



Fireflies


On a muggy Indiana night
my granddaughter
filled her hand still sticky from cobbler
with sluggish bugs blinking their way
above new mown grass. Her fist clamped tight.

Sent to wash off the gooey mess
she pouted in protest, unfurled her fingers
and loosed nine tiny, twinkling lights
like a handful of stardust onto the breeze.
Not an injured wing among them.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor