June 2024 - Fire Fireflies

June’s gifts are rich and dazzling. Indeed, after the sun finally has set on these, the longest, loveliest days of the year, June lavishes us further with magic.

First Fireflies

by Merryn Rutledge

Fireflies, come to celebrate desire,

bring me back to summer nights

when we sat on grown-ups’ laps

lulled by the to and fro of rocking chairs,

lingering heat, and family voices

lowing like the cows beyond the fence.

In the deepening dark we cousins watch

for insect flash, then rouse and run

into the stardust to catch the magic bugs

in cupped palms now lantern-lit.

Against my skin, a fluttering tickle

like when my mother’s feathery

eyelash brushes my kissed cheek.

Opening our hands, we set the tiny beacons free

and spread our arms to wings,

tilting our faces skyward to the bigger lights

that spin around our haloed heads.

Winner of the poetry prize for Orisons’ Best Spiritual Literature 2023, Merryn Rutledge is widely published. “First Fireflies” originally appeared in As Above So Below and is included in the poetry collection, Sweet Juice and Ruby-Bitter Seed (Kelsay Books). Merryn teaches poetry craft, reviews poetry books by women, and works for social justice causes. She formerly taught literature, film, and creative writing at Phillips Exeter Academy, and then ran a US-based leadership development consulting firm. Born in Arkansas, where generations of forebears were farmers, Merryn lives in New England. http://www.merrynpoetry.org