moments of magic

While floating around the Springs today, my nose was tickling.  I opened my eyes to find a blue dragonfly hanging out on my face!  And while I've yet to see fireflies in the city limits, I've heard that they are around this area; made me dig out the following poem.  Happy Friday!  Happy August!  Happy very-soon-to-be-nephew! In the dry summer field at nightfall, fireflies rise like sparks. Imagine the presence of ghosts flickering, the ghosts of young friends, your father nearest in the distance. This time they carry no sorrow, no remorse, their presence is so light. Childhood comes to you, memories of your street in lamplight, holding those last moments before bed, capturing lightning-bugs, with a blossom of the hand letting them go. Lightness returns, an airy motion over the ground you remember from Ring Around the Rosie. If you stay, the fireflies become fireflies again, not part of your stories, as unaware of you as sleep, being beautiful and quiet all around you. "Fireflies" by Marilyn Kallet, from Packing Light: New and Selected Poems. © Black Widow Press, 2009.