Phototaxis
by Mary Czerwinski (Televixen1701)
Brake lights on shiny black asphalt
the motion picture kind
Slick and reflective
like the back of a lizard
emerging from a Louisiana
swamp.
India ink-soaked pavement
absorbing colors and bouncing
them back into a pool of crimson.
Signals shift,
creating a shallow pond
of glossy emerald paint
strewn between intersections framed
by orbs of faded streetlights.
They flicker off and on,
just like the ones mom pointed to
when she said, “be home before dark.”
Softly buzzing deathtraps for
insects seeking moonlight.
Directionless they spiral,
so dazzled by artifice
they don’t realize
the very thing that
attracts them will
imprison them.
Yet, we, so much more
evolved,
fail to learn from their lesson
&
fall prey to all
myriad of colors
that dance in the night
and evaporate by dawn.
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