Flying Fire

 

Flying Fire

Granny tells how fireflies
would rise every evening
blinking like air glitter—

Except one evening,
it was the fifth of August
at 7:15 PM in Maryland time
which was the sixth of August
at 8:15 AM in Japan—
each and every bug went dark.

And Granny (a little girl back then)
wondered if it happened all over the world
or just that one lawn she saw from the glider
on the front porch but every lightning bug
went dark and never lit again that night.

What do fireflies know?
That was the moment (she learned only later)
when the atom bomb obliterated Hiroshima
and of course the bugs are simply mating
just like people do (she chuckles)
that’s why they flash.

…..

First published in Halfway Down the Stairs