(no subject)

[kokopellinelli]

Keely and I went to feed the pigs today, to give them a little TLC (which usually consists of running our hands around the cage after them, trying to brush up against their fur). We cleaned Justin's house, too, because the dust was getting to the point where it was developing an intellect. We cleaned and wiped and chased the pigs around, telling ourselves that it's good for them to exercise, and changed their water, and gave them their treat of lettuce. I love the way they chew, like it's the most important thing they'll ever do. If you videotape an old man with fuzzy jowls and bug eyes, staring directly at the camera, and chewing on a big hunk of lettuce that's hanging out of his mouth, then speed up the tape a hundred times...that's what it looks like when a guinea pig eats.

When we left, Keely rolled down her windows so the cooling-down air could touch our skin, and we sang along with the song on the radio, one I barely know the words to. We pulled out of the driveway, onto the road, and rolled forward, then...stopped. "Holy shit!" exclaimed my driver.

"Eh?" said I, intelligently.

"I just saw a firefly! In that yard right there!"

I had seen a flash of light across the street when we stepped onto the porch, but I didn't think we had fireflies here, and told her so.

"Oh, I knew we did. I've just never seen one before."

So on the drive back home, we kept our eyes peeled for the brief flashes of light, the stars on the pavement, and I thought about the last time I saw a firefly.

We don't have them in Alaska, but I have been other places. One summer, we traveled far in our motorhome, across the United States. We visited a family my parents knew, maybe in Oklahoma or Arkansas or someplace else entirely, because I have a terrible memory. I do remember sitting outside with my father and the guy who owned the farm, and it was dusk, and I could see fireflies in the yard. I was enthralled.

The man who owned the farm caught one for me, and held it up so I could see. I asked what made it glow...and the man crushed the firefly between his fingers, and wiped his fingers on his shirt, to show me how the guts made his shirt glow.

Some things...are just not poetic. No matter how much you wish they could be.

I didn't know we had fireflies here, but now I do, and perhaps someday soon I shall pull Keely out the door with me, to stand in the middle of the field and pretend we're floating high above the earth, among the stars.

Comments

[steppinrazor.livejournal.com]

Oi, I can't imagine a nighttime summer field filled with fireflies... Around here, we get so many it's like looking into the night sky... I've even gone glow worm hunting once, which is insane because the worms are so -tiny-. We always can tell what kind of year it's going to be by the fireflies, because the more you get, the less hot, humid weather you'll have, and the better the crop season will be... Just like wooly worms in Autumn, telling what kind of winter lies ahead. x]

[kokopellinelli]

We went outside last night, and saw NOT A ONE in our field. It was very sad.

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a firefly. Le sigh. That's on my list of things-to-do-before-I-die.

That farmer thing is creepy!

[raisedbymoogles.livejournal.com]

*weeps for the poor widdle firefly* I'm sentimental about fireflies...

[redwaltz.livejournal.com]

I've never seen a firefly. ;_; Not that I'd catch one. Bugs make me squicky.

[kokopellinelli]

They're really kind of ugly, too. Keels and I looked them up last night. She had thought they'd be cute and tiny, and they're actually big bioluminescent beetles.

[azazel.livejournal.com]

No... that wasn't very poetic, at all... but it made me laugh :P