The watcher

Do you remember the summer night?

having  taken a wrong turn on an unlit road

we saw the radio tower up ahead

which struck a strange chord

 it didn’t seem that Orangeville would have a radio station of its own

but we realized then, that we weren’t really lost

just a little off course

 “Look. There’s a whole field of fireflies,” you said, pointing at them.

you stopped the car at the side of the road, and one of us ripped our clothes on the barbed wire fence

we dropped to the ground, then chased the fireflies about, and ultimately each other

we both remember what came after

Monday, at work, a co-worker said that on the weekend, he’d watched a swarm of fireflies dance over the fields of his farm.    

Janet Bellinger

C 2006