In Tennessee I Found a Firefly
By Mary Szybist
Flashing in the grass; the mouth of a spider clung
to the dark of it: the legs of the spider
held the tucked wings close,
held the abdomen still in the midst of calling
with thrusts of phosphorescent light—
When I am tired of being human, I try to remember
the two stuck together like burrs. I try to place them
central in my mind where everything else must
surround them, must see the burr and the barb of them.
There is courtship, and there is hunger. I suppose
there are grips from which even angels cannot fly.
Even imagined ones. Luciferin, luciferase.
When I am tired of only touching,
I have my mouth to try to tell you
what, in your arms, is not erased.
Copyright Credit: Mary Szybist, “In Tennessee I Found a Firefly” from Granted. Copyright © 2003 by Mary Szybist. Reprinted with the permission of Alice James Books.
Source: Granted (Alice James Books, 2003)