Karen M. Rice

LAST NIGHT I CAUGHT A LIGHTNING BUG

Last night I caught a lightning bug,
Perhaps the last of the season.
His glimmer was growing dim, and I wanted to know the reason.
Was his life about to be snuffed out by a drug?

It mattered not, in the grander scheme of things.
We’re born, we flutter, we fly, then we die.
For everything the time must come just to lie.
If there is a god above, could be he brings us home with wings.

Today I stare at two lace wing dragon flies caught in spider’s snare.
Did they just make love, or were they about to?
We will never know or little care; it is often true,
So worry not, in death’s trap you will be caught; life is never fair.

Lift your voice in praise and sing of the eternal shore.
It matters not if you are man, woman, fly or leaf.
Let not your life be ruined by struggle, sorrow or grief;
Just live each day the best you can ~ this I must implore.

When piecing together life’s patchwork quilt,
You can find many varied emotions to embroider there.
You can ring it round with sorrow, anger, angst and fire;
Or you can tool it finely with love, sharing, and freedom from guilt.

Author’s Note: Written at Rose Hotel, the oldest continuously operating inn in the state of Illinois, in Elizabethtown on the Ohio River at 2 pm while sitting on the veranda overlooking the river