Fireflies and Clouds

Fireflies and Clouds  
 
I had gathered wild juniper berries and lilacs   
to press inside my pillow   
they would serve as sentinels for my dreams   
the colony of my adolescence would pollinate them   
creating new honeycombs to hide in   
 
Mama was tending the fire   
Her hands were partners to the flame  
Truckers' hands   
burnt at the edges and palms   
from cigarettes meant to keep her awake   
when she used to have overnight runs   
She called them cricket bites   
Chirps that called her home to her babies  
she confessed in my ear   
 
my baby brother tended to his new menagerie this night   
Fireflies in one mason jar   
pond frog in another   
And him beggin' mama to let him fetch a snake next  
 
No, was always the answer   
sometimes before he even asked   
 
We kept our food in the boughs o'er head  
Less the Cimmerians came calling for scraps   
 
but when we ate on evenings like this   
It fed me whole   
the nectar in the flames and the echoes in the laughter   
 
mama told baby brother that the marshmallows we roasted   
were shavings from the clouds   
caramelized and dripping with sugary bliss and reverie   
 
Once brother asked  
If we eat them   
How'd they get back to heaven   
 
When we fart, mama giggled   
And your grandpa was the best cloud maker in the world,  
she'd say  
That's why we called him Big Jim   
 
fire  
clouds  
laughter  
 
fireflies   
 
Mama   
I ask  
Can we stay here in the park  
again  
tomorrow night  
I don't like that shelter  
 
We'll see Cricket  
we'll see