Poem: The fireflies dance in my sunset-night

The fireflies dance,
Warmer in the night,
Not from their own light
But from the laughter that descends
In the fading summertime afternoon
As thousands of little children play
With nature’s own fairy-lit dreams
Afloat, on their own airy sea
Laughing, themselves, as the day
Tickles them smiling, into the gloom.

Would that I could alight
Onto the slipstreams of twinkling flight
That carry each new firefly onwards
To the whispers of each new sunset-embracing night…
But all the footsteps I did take
Into this hazy netherworld
Of forever unfulfilled promises,
At times only met by the gathering dark,
Echo in my quiet recesses,
Caressing all those memories that stir
In the silence of my still-empty heart.

Yea, my arms have grown weary
And my soul grown cold,
For though the winged fairy creatures of light
Might illuminate a child’s bright eyes
Into thousands of future adventures bold,
I no longer see with the same sight.
I, for whom the bell has finally tolled;
I, for whom the coming morning may not overcome
The approaching, enveloping embrace
Of my own dark, sunset-night.