In the thicket past the luscious bushes,
can you hear the cricket’s music?
Tell me the temperature, by degrees…
based on how the cricket sings.
We traversed ivy and kudzu vines,
and from time to time,
we were hypnotized,
by the flickering flashing
of fireflies passing,
dashing and passing and dashing on by.
Sashaying and steering,
and then disappearing.
Like transient embers
they quickly ascended.
Which made us remember the long drawn-out demise
of Northern Virginia’s declining fireflies.
Twilight had settled,
so onward we pedaled.
We stepped onto pavement,
made way to your basement.
Where moths were embossed
on the blocks outside
on the terra cotta bricks
by your tungsten porch light.
And on your cement steps,
a lazy slug had left
a crystalline trail
which traveled ’round the rail,
that you leaned on against
as you smoked a cigarette
and noticed the effect
of fading daylight vignetting…
…fading daylight vignetting…