Fireflies In the duskalmostdark at the very edge of vision there’s a microflashI’m not sure I saw it maybe a trick of opticsBut there it is again single double Now and then I pick one out against the twilight just another beetle flying until he signals The same brilliance as the firefly but not questingthinking he’s setting a better example Jupiter hangs high in the south a sham in his steady borrowed glowThe beetle unimpressed makes his own What does it cost the firefly that tiny burst of egoI suppose it’s worth it if there’s an answer from low in the periwinkle. August Storm In a temper the wind snatches up armfuls of rain flings it past the window like sheets being shaken out to drylike banners brandished by rioting revolutionaries Furious at having to carry this storm here from the Bahamas somewhere in the house it slams a door. Marty Carlock’s poetry has been published by Avalon Literary Review, DASH Literary Journal, Door Is a Jar, Edison Literary Review, Green Prints, Hobart, inscape, Moon City Review, and Penumbra. She currently writes for Sculpture and Landscape Architecture magazines, and reviews fiction and nonfiction for the Internet Review of Books.