Jar of Fireflies

Jar of Fireflies
- AK

A jar of fireflies rests on the mantle
the morning after. Jamie and little Bill
caught them in the park, rubberbanding
a pin-pricked sheet of paper as a roof
on one of our pickling jars, ripped leaves
and grass as furniture, taking part
of their home into ours. That half-dozen
insects illuminated our living room, a glow
warmer than any fire we could have made.
I can only hope that we had a family,
a pair of lovers, because a jar of fireflies
lasts only one night.