A Collection of Poems: Fireflies, Arrival of Spring, End of the World
By Tom Lagasse
Fireflies
Mid-summer, mid-evening the blue-
black night shrouds the self to become
A hidden witness, like the backyard maple
and the forsythia bush, to the nocturnal
Life emerging from its slumber. Again,
I wait expectantly for the fireflies to return.
Once constant stars on a cloudless
night, they danced to an unheard music
Their incandescence blinked their own
luminous light show. How I long to be
Part of the glow and again walk
through their fluid constellations
Of delight as though I am touring
a microcosm of the mystery.
Excessive night light has blinded
the fireflies to see through darkness
And humans’ ceaseless appetite for
manicured lawns has poisoned their homes
To near extinction. Now, all I can do is wait
for us to become wild again, to again desire
The flickering field and connection over
the ubiquitous ones pulsing inside our homes.
Tonight, I will search for a single glowing pulse,
a beacon, to help find our way back to the stars.
Arrival of Spring
Spring will soon arrive yet
will offer stark consolation
In a country whose people reside
with ice in their hearts and dare not
Remove their dark tinted sunglasses
and be blinded by icy whiteness.
Fires rage in every direction
and no warmth can be found
The planet heats by degrees,
and we apply more sunscreen.
Soon all that will remain from
the snow melt are puddles
and memory, but tell that to
the broken birch and maple limbs.
Tell that to those who mourn
the dead – who respond and point
to their hearts. Not all wounds
will heal. The scars etched into
The body, into the land cannot
be hidden by bunting or flags.
End of the World
Surviving heatstroke, he transforms
Into a god of his own making.
Blinded, he believes he is Tireseus.
Burning he believes he is Prometheus.
In his Copernican world he yearns to be
Both Sun and Oracle. Curious acquaintances,
like planets, orbit with the hope of love,
friendship, or insight but receive only fire.
The climate heats. Fertile ground becomes fallow.
Parched land cannot feed insatiable hunger.