Fireflies live dangerous poem by Ruth Harrison

Fireflies live dangerous showy lives
are easy prey for bats and spiders.
A female photurus firefly mimics
the female photinus. When
the unsuspecting (oh, well: big,
dumb) testosterone-driven
male photinus
makes a pass
at the lady flashing in the grass
she eats him.

So far I have saved
the pines’ yearly new candles,
red emperors, swallowtails,
wool carders, barbed wire,
owl and linnet and larkspurs,
moss flowers, a dragonfly
ant hills, my mother,
a brother and a cat
several rocks, a river,
and a canyon, but
the male photinus will
just have to look out
for himself.


First appeared in "Tiger's Eye", 2004.