Skywriting: The Evolving Magic of Fireflies/ poem by Mary O’Melveny

I once thought each firefly was a baby star
learning the ropes before their elfin wings
carried them aloft to mythical places far
from the weary world of darkening things
churning in each earthbound corner. Later, I suspected
they might once have comprised a starburst
comet tail as it spun, sailed, then disconnected.

I imagined the spill downward; how, at first,
they thrilled to gravity’s pull, sweeping
across crowded skies, aiming for new
stages, for rapturous audiences keeping
track of each dazzling pirouette. My view
this night finds solace in more elusive filaments
as memory shards migrate across the firmament.

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Mary K O’Melveny, award-winning poet and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, is the author of four poetry collections and a chapbook. Her most recent, If You Want To Go To Heaven, Follow A Songbird (Jerry Jazz Musician 2024) is available at https://www.jerryjazzmusician.com/if-you-want-to-go-to-heaven-follow-a-songbird-mary-k-omelvenys-album-of-poetry-and-music/  Mary’s poems have appeared in many print and on-line literary journals and anthologies and on international blog sites. Her collection Flight Patterns (2023) was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her book, Merging Star Hypotheses (2020), was a semi-finalist for The Washington Prize, sponsored by The Word Works. Mary is an active member of the Hudson Valley Women’s Writing Group and a co-author of the Group’s two published anthologies, Mary lives with her wife near Woodstock, New York. Her web site is https://www.marykomelvenypoet.com