Chasing Fireflies (2 July 2020)

- Montague Whitsel

Chasing fireflies across the lawn
two boys adventure, dance and yawn_
as evening falls and dreaming calls—
from youth’s fine fey toward manhood’s dawn.        1

Catching fireflies in the side yard,
trouncing down clover in the greensward_
as boys we would play at the end of the day—
under the sway of fantasy’s Muse.                              2

Admiring fireflies in the palms of our hands
child-mystics ventured to faraway lands,
beyond the darkness and its mortal starkness—
two boys flow in the sluice of time’s sands.             3

Tempted by fireflies in the last light of youth
twilight thrilled us, as mortality’s sooth—
yet somewhere beyond the flames of night,
young boys still dance, then yawn with delight.      4
So mote it be!