All the Words for Light
Mk Smith Despres
| poetry
I call them lightning bugs.
He calls them fireflies.
Our daughter is four
and has not yet decided.
She tries each name
in the same evening,
in the same wet patch of grass,
in the same breath.
She calls them
sparkle bugs
and flitterworks
and soon
we stop trying to catch the light
in the names someone gave us
in the hollow clap of cupped palms
and instead hold hands to mouths and call out
all the words for light.
Mk Smith Despres writes, teaches, and makes art in western Massachusetts. Their poems appear or are forthcoming in Frozen Sea, Hunger Mountain, Thimble, Radar, and texts to their best friend.