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104th Weekly Poetry Contest winner: Fireflies

by Rebecca O'Bern

Horseshoe. It's a ringer.
There is always too much time

scooped out between seeing
the family. Fourth of July,

a nephew nearly my age
sparks a marshmallow

on the cinderblock fire pit as we
laugh over Yuengling

and Grandma's macaroni salad.
Oh, how she would drive the girls

in her hunting truck!--too fast
on those Allegheny roads--

no guard rails, up-down-up-down,
no seatbelts, and her backyard

glider summer-sleeps, cradled
in a blanket of fireflies:

disappearing, reappearing,
like our memories of her,

mocking us like little gods.

---

"Fireflies" first appeared in Crack the Spine.

See all the entrants to 104th Weekly Poetry Contest