Something to Light Our Way

Something to Light Our Way
 
Summer evening dims the yard
Birds nestle in nests that entwine the compost of nature and man
 
Small creatures come out:
We children and the lightning bugs—
The small glowing points of light that occasionally winked at us
 
It was their secret sign
And we ran to catch them
To hold something so bright—
Our hands glowed orange from their beams
 
They lit our dark world
 
We stored them in boxes
 
They died the next day, the light too delicate to be in captivity
 
Just like our own quivering luminescence as we aged into teens
 
Our secret plea was the same—
 
Find us
 
Love us
 
Set us free