A Walk Among the Fireflies Canto III

Firefly Questions

I took a walk this evening

Just to stretch my legs

And clear my head

So on this summer’s night

Thick with the promise of a thunderstorm

I walk the streets of my neighborhood

Past familiar houses

With lights and families inside

Past the old meadow

Which remembers a long gone farm,

Past the tree-lined bog

Now silent for the night

Save for the infrequent croaking

Of a bull frog.

Around the bend I go

Into the newest neighborhood

With houses big as mansions

Painted every shade of a muted rainbow,

Meant to make them appear different,

Yet unable to hide the fact that

they are pretty much all the same.

Along the edge of the park I walk,

Where fireflies flash between the trunks of an oak wood,

And a small bunny rabbit scampers across my path

And into the rose thicket

Presenting me with an evening’s delight!

And I can’t help but wonder

If the children in these monstrous homes

Watching TV, playing video games,

Or texting their friends realize

what a wonder is waiting for them

right outside their doors?

And I can’t help but wonder if they even care,

Or if their will even be fireflies 20 years from now

And will the next generation even know what they are?

~Kathie Adams Brown (June 22, 2012)