Small hands dart quickly towards a vanishing yellow orb.
Reaching for the flash of an undefined spot
in the playful dark of the settling, country night,
where the firefly was perceived alight
but has already floated past, catching spark again,
a few feet ahead of the child’s searching eyes.

His little face stretches,
a strangely excited mask, in the new direction,
a small bottle close by to keep captive insects under watch.

As remnants of the day’s heat recede into cooler shadows,
a dance of light sparkles across the open pasture,
as if a carousel has dispersed itself, broken form
and flung its carnival majesty
to swim across the evening sky,
drifting down the velvet hillsides
spilling into the moonless forest
where its strobing, discotheque ambiance
flickers throughout the darkening treeline.