They´re catching fireflies but the teens
in the grass are after each other.

Boys, jeans hanging from their hips,
break into sudden games of chase.

The girls, shoulders golden under
spaghetti straps, make a squealing show

of trying to escape. Mostly, they hover,
as easy to seize as the languid beetles

flicking their strobes. Captured, those
bugs have no more spark than houseflies.

Of course, foreshadowing gets lost in the dark
stand of trees and heat of midsummer

when you´re sixteen and only just
discovering how you glow.









Ona Gritz´s chapbook of poems, Left Standing, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. She is also the author of two children's books, Starfish Summer (HarperCollins, 1998) and Tangerines and Tea (Harry N. Abrams, forthcoming 2005). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous anthologies and journals, including Paterson Literary Review, Moment, Poetry East, Literary Mama, Flashquake, Lily and Ekphrasis, where she was a finalist for the 2004 Ekphrasis prize.
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