Ten Thousand Fireflies

Ten Thousand Fireflies

In a backyard in Pennsylvania
on a cool July clear evening,
I see ten thousand fireflies

rising from a well-kept lawn
like so many atoms taking leave
in sparks of transformation,

like the dissolution of the self,
like evaporation of a dream,
like the embers of a barbeque

I stoked on other summer nights
in another state, another time,
another world, another rhyme.

~Peace to All and One,
Son Rivers