Fireflies

Deep in the forest
           the beckoning body beacons
advertising their love
           bioluminescent beetles
that hunger for a mate
           their bellies packed
with light-bearing enzymes :
           through the air
they drift
           selling sex
their soft cold lamps
           switching on and off
on and off
           on and off
as they cruise
           the shadows
of the unmarked
           boulevards

Chiaroscuro—
           bright glow
in the darkness
           of Caravaggio’s studio
the gleam in his eye
           the canvas awash
with the powder
           of dried firefly
to prepare a sensual
           photosensitive surface
for a Baroque
           baptism of light

John Lyons