Fireflies of Fall

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

author : Tan Lioe Ie


You who write history in blood
How many more fireflies will you create
from a dead man’s fingernails? They fly
adorning the night
the autumn night, hoarse
with the owl’s harsh cry
under an anxious moon

“Here’s to victory!” you say
While your head spins, and stars
shoot from your eyes, and
cling to your grandchildren’s fingernails and
your own, blue with death

they fly to inhabit the barren
and parched parks, where old trees
with bark as brittle and cracked
as your skin, await their moment
of Fall, of crashing to earth –

at the moment of Autumn
the season of fire-flies
with their flickering light that constantly asks

Are you victor or vanquished?

Filed under : EDITION  -

ARCHIVES of July , 2005