tabi ni yande

yume wa kareno wo

kake meguru

-M.B.

---

We float among them

like the river mist

that curls in the leafy corners,

all of us, together—

and yet, never.

---

For though I feel your kind eyes

brush me over like a veil,

or an early breeze on a foggy shore,

the light that whispers from them

is not yours.

---

Fear not, for I have stolen, too,

and we are not alone—

certainly, we are not alone—

we all have stood

in childhood fields of fireflies

and spent our Julys

drinking in the pale-green glow

of everything we ever hope to know.

---

And now, we are the fireflies;

we dance in droves

in moonlit groves,

and proudly shine our mystic light

against the soft shroud of the night,

and every time we glow, we find it new—

we fail to realize

that our uniqueness is the same pale hue.

---

-Louise C---, Ph.D