Category: Poetry

fireflies

The fireflies
In the bottle by
My bed at night
Twinkle like
The stars outside

They power dreams
Of boyhood flight
To other worlds
Beyond the stars

Sometimes, the fire
It burns too hot
Can’t douse the flames
Can’t put it out

I walk away
And let it burn
It follows me
Burns up the world

But if I stay
And let it burn
It burns away
The fuel it’s fed

I wish I was
A bigger man
A brighter heart
A gentler hand

But every time
I find a wall
Which limits me
And makes me small

I push it back
A little way
Become a bigger
Man that day

The power, grace and majesty
Of the sea
Reminds me

Who I am
What I was always
Meant to be

Rock tumbled
Over the chasm’s edge
Like blood flowing
From a deep wound

Seeing the land in this way
I recognize the depth
Of my own trauma

You tear at me
In subtle ways
With unsubtle effects

Like the waves
Slowly undermining
A steep rocky shore

Sometimes I find my eye lingering
On the path I’ve already travelled

I remind myself

Look forward
Or risk running aground

I saw the Earth
Photographed from space
And was startled
By the whisper-thin atmosphere

I live on a smooth
Round globe
Of rock and water
With just a thin veneer of gas

It always surprises me
That the tenacity
And virility
Of life in the desert
Surprises me

But I shrug
And think to myself
Life itself
Is a surprise
Which always surprises me

Perhaps
All that glitters
Is not gold

But I recline
Beneath a golden sky
Above a glittering sea

And therein lies
The greatest wealth
I’ll ever need