Firefly, by Kit Loney

Josephine Baker at the Casino in Paris, photograph by Haim Efime Boris Lipnitzki (France, b. Ukraine) 1930.

Firefly
      
​In the next to the last dream, the cerulean one    
                                                                   Susan Meyers
 
She poses on stage, all long legs and outstretched arms, a photo taken in
1930. Radiating from her are eight wings, each shaped like the
helicopter seedpods of maple trees, swirls of sequins embroidered next 
to lines of beads and pearls on the white cloth, making spirals to
echo her painted-on signature curls. And the
yards of loose fabric fanning out onto the stage before her. This, the last
tableau of Paris qui remue, after Forest Bird and Venetian Dream
with its ballroom scene, live pigeons flying out from the
back of the theater. And then Ocean Storm, where costumes yield to cerulean
and rose flashing lights. But here, here is Love and Electricity. This is the one.

Kit Loney

Kit Loney  "I come to poetry from a background in visual art which I taught in middle school for twenty years. My poems have appeared in Prime Number, Emrys Journal, Yemassee, Redheaded Stepchild, Qarrtsiluni, Waccamaw, Kakalak, One, Fall Lines, and Poetry East. I received the 2012 Carrie McCray Nickens Poetry Fellowship from the SC Academy of Authors."