How Can It Be August Already??

Fireflies

by Cecilia Woloch

And these are my vices:
impatience, bad temper, wine,
the more than occasional cigarette,
an almost unquenchable thirst to be kissed,
a hunger that isn't hunger
but something like fear, a staunching of dread
and a taste for bitter gossip
of those who've wronged me—for bitterness—
and flirting with strangers and saying sweetheart
to children whose names I don't even know
and driving too fast and not being Buddhist
enough to let insects live in my house
or those cute little toylike mice
whose soft grey bodies in sticky traps
I carry, lifeless, out to the trash
and that I sometimes prefer the company of a book
to a human being, and humming
and living inside my head
and how as a girl I trailed a slow-hipped aunt
at twilight across the lawn
and learned to catch fireflies in my hands,
to smear their sticky, still-pulsing flickering
onto my fingers and earlobes like jewels.


please note: photo by Lila Byrd

Comments

  1. Wow, that is a fascinating poem. Such vivid imagery.



    Sigh. My word verification is: butmap. Ugh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know how it's August already. I feel we've been cheated out of summer and winter is already on my doorstep. I've only seen a few fireflies this year.

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  3. I'm happy it's August, because that means vacation for the next four weeks ! yiipppeeeee !

    We don't have fireflies in France, and I miss them, always loved them as a kid... but we do have glow worms that are about the same color light in the night...

    ReplyDelete
  4. August was the month I came to Greece.
    August was the month my son was born.
    August was the month we moved into the new home.
    August will be the month I love to remember.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The last nine lines say it all for me. How did it get to be August??? Thanks for this one.

    ReplyDelete

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Hey, thanks for your thoughts and your time:>)

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