Morning
I sit on the stoop Cradling a warm cup in my cold fingers
Its warmth makes them tingle
A single star pierces the eastern horizon
It hangs in the lightening sky
Defiant of the quickly rising sun
The sky turns princess colored
Clouds of periwinkle and pink
As the world greets the Prince of Day
It sheds its cloak of gray
And dons a robe of gold
The clouds that fell asleep
And drifted to blanket the earth
Turn golden as they awaken
And rise back to the air
Soon the star winks out
No longer able to compete
The color overpowers it
The evening songbirds bid sweet dreams
As the morning birds greet the light
And for a brief and shining moment
Both day and night
Singing at once
Shining at once
At perfect peace and unity
The star passing vigil to the sun
And I sit
For a moment under both watchful eyes
And I sip the warmth from my cup
A creature of both night and day
Evening
In the cool air of a summer ‘eve I laid in the grass beneath a low branch And hardly dared take breath And as the sun hid all her light I heard the Queen of the Fireflies speak
“Come now, my sisters
Let us dance among the pines
Let us twinkle like starlight
And frolic through the oaks
We will speak to the stars
Sending sparkling messages
Flitting between eager hands
As they try to catch our light
We shall tease them with our beauty
And dance just out of reach
Great fun it is, this game of tag
But careful lest the Gigglers win
And end our game for good
For though they mean well
Captivity is none too kind
To our small and meager glow
So dance away my sister lights
And tease, but do not touch”
So off they flew to begin their game
As the Gigglers came outdoors
With peals of laughter and screams of delight
They ran with small hearts pounding
The chase began
Like none before
A chase worthy of legend
Both Gigglers and Fire
Knowing their parts so well
The one would fly just out of reach
The other with hands outstretched
The green ones lingering just long enough
The hands closing shut with a clap
But fingers pull back
To give joyed eyes a peek
And let wings carry little lights free
Like floating stars in this moonlit air
Like freshborn nymphs on the dew dropped grass
Dance and laugh intertwined
On this joyous and glorious evening
