What’s left to say about fireflies,
their whimpering glow?
In late August, the leaves are a Kantorei
of uranium. Not long now

until they fall,
sizzling in the creek’s cool flume.
Time makes mushrooms
of us all.

Jay Aelick is a birdwatcher, disc golfer, tarot reader, and sometimes even poet. Their work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in The Journal, The Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, Barely South Review, and elsewhere. They are one half of the St. Balasar University English Club podcast, where real critique partners at a fake university workshop the books the internet had written off.