Night of Fireflies
Last night I was sleepless at about three o’clock. I had noticed a good many fireflies earlier in the night, and indeed I had just had to remove one that had somehow gotten into my bedroom. I found it flashing and attempting to burrow across my carpet.
I picked it up and put it back outside. And then I stood and watched the great dance moving all along the hillside.
This sonnet was the result.
They never really mention just how bright
Your flash is. Back and forth and here and there
Along the grass, your brilliant, silent light
Still startles with its lightning flash the air
Of summer's slumbered darkness, till the bare
Gray netherworld beneath the stars is full
Of yellow gleam. And at such times I care
But little how the stars are lit; you pull
My heart into your weaving dance. No dull
And distant glow, but close and bright you spring
And drift; your stately promenades now lull
Me sleepward as I watch you court and wing.
So many dancers rise into the night,
It quivers, sparkling, sprite by yellow sprite.