Published in Pennsylvania Bards Western PA Poetry Review 2024

My poem “Where Have All the Fireflies Gone” has been published in Pennsylvania Bards Western PA Poetry Review 2024. Below is my reading of the poem from the PA Bards poetry event. I’ve also included the poem at the bottom of the page.

---

---

Where Have All the Fireflies Gone? 


Where I'm from, we call them lightning bugs
            neon green orbs 
that used to fill our summer nights with magic
and we would capture them in glass jars
            a menagerie of little mysteries.

            We often wondered how these tiny beacons worked
            without electricity or oil
            no candle wicks flickering with flame
            and sometimes the boys 
            full of mischief and grime
            would smush poor bugs between dirty fingers
            and the girls would reel back in disgust
            as the boys inspected the neon soot
            that smelled of the Earth. 

In other places, they call them fireflies
            neon green orbs
that used to take over swamps 
and made bullfrog bellies glow 
            like amphibious paper lanterns.

            When we rushed to the twilight fields
            in anticipation of those homeborn stars
            and the beginning of July warmed our souls
            it was the magic hour 
            that allowed us to be free
            without constraint or obligation
            because we were young
            and no one could steal our smiles
            so luminous in the bug light.

As adults, we call them missing
            neon green orbs
that have dissipated into the ether of time gone by
and vanished from our dreams
            a mist of memory.

            Maybe only children can see the lights
            their innocence transforming midges into magic
            or time has sullied our vision
            so that we only know empty fields 
            and pitch-black swamps 
            or maybe
            the lightning never existed at all
            was only the brilliance of childhood imagination
            that has faded away like fireflies at summer's end.