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