Lydia Gold

The moonlight gently slipped

In between the cracks

Of that summer night

The tires hummed along the highway

On which we were traveling

And music flowed softly out of the radio

In the front seats

My parents whispered

Of things

That I knew nothing of

My brother sat next to me

Listening to his headphones

And tapping his fingers to the rhythm of the song

That only he heard

Outside, the rolling landscape

Was just a black silhouette

Of the farms and forests it was made of

Against the darkness, I saw a glimmer of light

It was gone before I could even tell

That it had ever been there at all

But then there were more

And those little sparks began to illuminate

The unseen fields around us

My brother turned to me

“Fireflies” he said

I watched their flames ignite and extinguish

Like tiny lanterns hanging

In the country air

Lighting up the road for us

On that summer night