The girl had never seen fireflies
   before – that’s how it starts –
glittering, it goes on, like a hundred
   on-screen flight trackers
or the glinting eyes of a child
on the baby-sitting monitor.

I thought that was straining for effect.
   I had seen fireflies, how they each
lit their light or maybe discovered
   they were glowing, felt it and flew.
Seeing the others like lighted windows
   across a dark valley sustained them,

because a far hillside at night
   can seem a lot like a distant country,
one you’re connected to only by radar
   or wireless. And it’s true, that glinting
does lift your heart. What the girl felt
   in that story was exactly true.