I’d like to salute for a moment
The sparkle in the eye
Of the child reaching out
Sweetly cupped hands
Capturing a tiny lightning treasure,
Placing each blinking creature in a
Mayonnaise jar, breathing holes
Punctured in the lid.
Your smile glows ember-yellow
In the flickering candle-light
Of these dream-keepers of night.

It makes me remember
Wild, wild nights
Filled with faeries aflitter
And monkeys that sing in the wood.
A sprinkle of this and that is enough,
Young forever, the moon on our cheeks
Our toes in the cool damp sands where we bury our cars
And run our water hoses.
The sweet gray granite is still homebase,
And you are still hiding behind the old oak, the one
With the swinging tire, before Daddy cut it down.

Children are catching faeries
Across fields and yards
Along the edges of woods
In town after town over countless nights
Backed by a cicada chorus
Like no other sound on earth.
Wild dancing eyes and lips moving
Slowly counting each one.
We bury them in the sandbox
And watch the sand burst
With lime-lit fury.










 
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