-- Universal Light --

John Herlihy

There I sit silently, in profound darkness deep,

The shadows of night oh so perilous and steep.

I close my eyes and experience much the same,

To lay deeply within, I can hardly darkness blame.

Suddenly through an open window, a firefly flew,

 No doubt riding quietly a gentle wind that blew.

Circled the room, then alighted on my shoulder,

The sight of this ancient being made me feel older.

This sentinel of Mother Nature never felt so close,

Uplifting my lonely heart with its feelings morose.

In this moody depression of night, I asked for nothing,

Yet the divine mercy of nature always offers something.

Up close and personal, I gazed into its glowing eyes;

The beloved insect gazed back, in its manner wise.

An eternal moment passed between us, then I knew;

A miraculous stream of light thru the window blew.

A handful, then dozens of fireflies streaming in a row,

Swirling in growing multitudes, starlight tails in glow.

Undulating rhythms of light pulsating in the dark of night,

Fireflies increasing to thousands beaming infinitudes of light.

The fireflies then blended into millions of stars streaming,

Infinitesimal in size, yet infinite in number ever beaming.

I closed my eyes to witness galaxies pulsating in a swirl;

The mind’s eye now illuminated in the light of a pearl.

Never such haunting in darkness as this haunting of light,

As if the entire universe had entered the room from the night.

Light upon light shone upon me in this universal outpouring;

Surrender I must in a simple act of faith in personal adoring.

The aurora borealis had never shown down with such intensity,

Seemingly with such willingness to share its sublime mystery.

Dazzling meteor storms descended in their luminescent shower,

Generating an enlightenment compelling with its divine power.

Standing on the brink expressing this inborn desire to adore;

I opened my eyes after witnessing the invisible and so much more.

Only to see my little friend, the firefly, still staring me in the face,

There upon my shoulder, as if only there was its rightful place.

Alas, the firefly and its solitary light effortlessly lifted itself aloft,

Giving me a final salute, touching my heart with its caress soft.

Taking its leave through the window past a streetlight, all aglow,

Into waves of universal light we are all destined to finally know.

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(c) John Herlihy 26 August 2020