playing for keeps
close your eyes and pretend that you and i are fireflies. we’re lighting up a shoebox and meeting for the first time. there we sit, captured, waiting for the lid to open up and we make small talk. buzz you talk to me and buzzz i tak back, we’re making small-bug-small-talk. the others in the box pay no attention to us. and this box is our world and outside of our world more goes on: two little girls chase more fireflies around watching them light up in the darkness and giggling as they spin around in their dresses. someday they’ll be just like us, trying to light up a box enough to see their way out, but until then they’re just young and their parents laugh and watch them from the front porch. see how many you can get, whoever gets the most wins them all one says. the other tries harder to catch more so that she can let them all go. one day, she’ll be trying to let herself go. but until then. i buzz for you.