{"id":4210,"date":"2011-04-01T00:10:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T05:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"\/nashvillereview\/?p=4210"},"modified":"2015-02-17T14:36:01","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T20:36:01","slug":"photuris-lucicrescens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/4210","title":{"rendered":"Photuris Lucicrescens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caravaggio may have used a powder of dried fireflies to create a photosensitive
\nmixture in his uniquely lit paintings<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the loitering dusk
\nthe lightning bugs begin
\ntheir dart and dwindle
\nas if small constellations<\/p>\n

were taking up galaxies
\nin our ant-ridden peonies.
\nSee how they swirl through
\nthe waves of grass<\/p>\n

to the bird bath
\nwhere they descend.
\nTonight let us call our constellation
\nUlysses and Penelope,<\/p>\n

the way it flickers off
\nlike love and returns
\nas lingering. Of course,
\nwe both know it is the males<\/p>\n

who wander, the females
\nwho weave lawnward.
\nWhich is best, you ask,
\nto roam or to remain?<\/p>\n

We talk in the fickle light
\nof the sister who stayed
\nwhen she should have left,
\nof the irresolute boy<\/p>\n

who left our daughter,
\nso much shimmering into dark,
\nand then of our stolid selves,
\nhow we have stuck it out.<\/p>\n

I know if you left me,
\nI wouldn\u2019t wait twenty summers<\/p>\n

for your return though
\nI can imagine those who do,<\/p>\n

how one more day hangs on
\nto the next until decades
\nglisten into dawn,
\nhow these pale green stars<\/p>\n

keep time quiet
\nthough the glimmer
\nfades fast from the skin,
\nthe face.<\/p>\n

Here is my photo when I was 14,
\nwhen I knew a boy
\nwho crushed a hundred fireflies
\nand smeared them on his thighs.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I imagine
\nhim reappearing
\nin the teasel
\ndown by the fence<\/p>\n

though rumor has it
\nhe died of cancer
\nseveral years ago,
\nthat kind of lingering.<\/p>\n

I learned long ago
\nnot to cup my hands
\naround the glittering, not
\nto drown gleam in glass jars.<\/p>\n

I think Penelope
\nwas shocked when she saw
\nhis quivering torso
\nstrut into her mirror.<\/p>\n

She must have said to him
\nI thought you were dead\u2013no,
\nI thought you were your mother,
\nas I keep seeing my mother\u2019s face<\/p>\n

in photographs of my sisters,
\nas I suppose
\nthey see their mother
\nmuted in me<\/p>\n

though I have always thought
\nI look like my father,
\none like you who did not wander
\nand did not weep.<\/p>\n

Lois Marie Harrod<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caravaggio may have used a powder of dried fireflies to create a photosensitive mixture in his uniquely lit paintings. In the loitering dusk the lightning bugs begin their dart and dwindle as if small constellations were taking up galaxies in our ant-ridden peonies. See how they swirl through the waves of grass to the bird […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-15U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10332,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4210\/revisions\/10332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}