When Fireflies Speak The Language Of Love, by Hedy Habra

When Fireflies Speak The Language Of Love
                        
after Fireflies on the Water, by Yayoi Kusama (Japan) 2002
 
Aren't these flickering lights at dusk a magical gift of hot summer nights, 
also called lantern fly, sparkling like fallen stars on hot summer nights?
 
As thousands of lanterns set afloat to reach departed souls, guiding spirits
through the darkness, they speak in silent sign language on hot summer nights.
 
I think of candles lit inside votive lotus-shaped lanterns as I watch rows of
quivering lights desperately glued onto window panes on hot summer nights.
 
In an intermittent flutter, an electric shock echoing my musings, fireflies speak
the language of love, an inaudible music in the stillness of hot summer nights.
 
With bright names formed around light and fire, luciole, lucciole, luciérnaga, 
pygolampída, Yínghuǒchóng, zubabat el nar, they dance on hot summer nights,
 
echo lovers' wordless encounters with all their variations, conjuring up lost faces,
recalling all the shining promises my younger self dreamt of on hot summer nights 
 
Hedy Habra
 
First published by Nūr Mélange: a ghazal anthology, Quitab Editions
 
Hedy Habra

Hedy Habra's latest poetry collection, Or Did You Ever See The Other Side? won the 2024 International Poetry Book Award and was a Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award and The USA Best Book Awards. The Taste of the Earth, won the Silver Nautilus Book Award and Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award; Tea in Heliopolis won the Best Poetry Book Award and Under Brushstrokes was a finalist for the International Poetry Book Award. Her story collection, Flying Carpets, won the Arab American Book Award’s Honorable Mention and was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Her book of criticism is Mundos alternos y artísticos en Vargas Llosa, She is a twenty one-time-nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. https://www.hedyhabra.com/