文章基本信息

标题：Lightning bugs.
作者：Durkin, Kevin
期刊名称：New Criterion
印刷版ISSN：0734-0222
出版年度：2004
期号：September
语种：English
出版社：Foundation for Cultural Review

摘要：

 Lightning bugs     We used to keep our lightning bugs in jars    with holes punched through the lids so they'd have air.    They'd creep along the sides, their yellow stars    dimming to green in protest of our care.     To woo dark females hidden in the grass,    the bugs we failed to catch would gently rise    like champagne bubbles in a twilit glass,    filling the air with soft light and surprise.     Why did we want them if they couldn't give    the same delight when captured as when free?    We must have known they hadn't long to live,    yet, charmed by them, we couldn't let them be.     Beyond our grasp, erratic bats would weave    the spaces between maple crowns together    while clouds turned purple and the wind's long sleeve    swept our flushed cheeks, suggesting rougher weather.

Lightning bugs.

Durkin, Kevin

Lightning bugs

   We used to keep our lightning bugs in jars
   with holes punched through the lids so they'd have air.
   They'd creep along the sides, their yellow stars
   dimming to green in protest of our care.

   To woo dark females hidden in the grass,
   the bugs we failed to catch would gently rise
   like champagne bubbles in a twilit glass,
   filling the air with soft light and surprise.

   Why did we want them if they couldn't give
   the same delight when captured as when free?
   We must have known they hadn't long to live,
   yet, charmed by them, we couldn't let them be.

   Beyond our grasp, erratic bats would weave
   the spaces between maple crowns together
   while clouds turned purple and the wind's long sleeve
   swept our flushed cheeks, suggesting rougher weather.