Air Aid

Title from Menomena (MySpace)

A pair of stadium lights,
their bulbs vacated from the heads,
stood in the middle of the green field
that glowed dimly blue in the waning light of day
as the fireflies first started to twiddle about,
bounding down and then up
blinking once and then twice
while I sat on the bench
next to the path
next to the fence
next to the old gray shack that heaved in the wind
under the weight of its own support beams
next to the party tents with aluminum supports
that doubled and distorted the fireflies
and the tree nursery beyond them.

Above the nursery
I caught the first star of the night, I think.
It shone bright and white and strong,
never flickering or dancing like the fireflies.
I mouthed a wish with just enough force
that the words formed in the humid air in front of me
and dissipated in the building fog of the evening
and I waited for my wish to come true.

After twenty minutes of crickets and cars,
I decided my star was a satellite.