Ode to Fireflies
Just look out the window. There's something out there that wants to talk to you.
~ Emilie Lygren
I know my body will not last but the soul
speaks in tongues through the oak leaves.
It threads the earth when the body is gone.
I can hear it in the smell of jasmine,
in the light gone out over the spider’s avenue,
the glade of the cricket, quick blink of the firefly.
Timpani thrash echo — sea empties and fills --
a question started, never finished because
there is no answer, only a sickle moon rising.
The residue of love stays, its scent in thick spruce,
its print in hand whorls —my father’s hands
healing a motor, holding us in the darkening nights,
my mother’s nervous fingers never still.
I know the body doesn’t last but the soul
stalks the earth when the body is gone.
Think of the inner flames of fireflies.
Mary Kay Rummel’s Little River of Amazements: New and Selected Poems, was published by Blue Light Press. Her books have won awards from New Rivers Press and Bright Hill Press. She taught at the University of Minnesota and CSU, Channel Islands. The first Poet Laureate of Ventura County, she was named Poetry Hero at the VC Poetry Festival and helped found the VC Poetry Project.
Just look out the window. There's something out there that wants to talk to you.
~ Emilie Lygren
I know my body will not last but the soul
speaks in tongues through the oak leaves.
It threads the earth when the body is gone.
I can hear it in the smell of jasmine,
in the light gone out over the spider’s avenue,
the glade of the cricket, quick blink of the firefly.
Timpani thrash echo — sea empties and fills --
a question started, never finished because
there is no answer, only a sickle moon rising.
The residue of love stays, its scent in thick spruce,
its print in hand whorls —my father’s hands
healing a motor, holding us in the darkening nights,
my mother’s nervous fingers never still.
I know the body doesn’t last but the soul
stalks the earth when the body is gone.
Think of the inner flames of fireflies.
Mary Kay Rummel’s Little River of Amazements: New and Selected Poems, was published by Blue Light Press. Her books have won awards from New Rivers Press and Bright Hill Press. She taught at the University of Minnesota and CSU, Channel Islands. The first Poet Laureate of Ventura County, she was named Poetry Hero at the VC Poetry Festival and helped found the VC Poetry Project.
