I will be reading for the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh on November 15th, 2026 at the City of Asylum bookstore. Below is an old poem set in Pgh. that I plan to read.
FIREFLIES IN A JAR
My best friend Bruce
say he allergic to bees.
The Encyclopedias
my Mama got me
for my birthday
from the Goodwill
say if he get stung
he might swell up
like a vacuum cleaner bag.
He say his Mama
will have to stab him—
in the leg—with a magic pen,
and he would miss school
for three whole days.
The Encyclopedia say
if a bee sting you, they die.
Bruce say bees & grasshoppers
be dancing, sometimes
we catch grasshoppers
and pull they legs off.
The legs keep on leaping.
Bruce say God made
Praying Mantises
to eat grasshoppers
and to remind us
what to do before we eat.
Encyclopedia say mantises
are related to roaches.
Bruce say he saw a silverfish
flicker in his toy box,
he say it had more legs
than the encyclopedia got pages
and it twisted around his wrist
like a little bracelet.
Encyclopedia say
silverfish ain’t really silver
and ain’t really fish,
they say if one bites you
your fingernails might fall off.
Every time it rains,
worms be making the letter "S"
like silverfishes on the sidewalk.
If you step on one
your shoes get smushy.
Encyclopedia say worms
are boy & girl in one body.
Late last night I snuck
into the kitchen to see
what roaches be doing in the dark.
I saw a girl roach,
I know it was a girl
because it was pregnant.
I’m only seven
but I'm the best roach killer
in our whole projects.
Encyclopedia say
it’s in their nature
for roaches to carry disease,
but I ain't never seen a sick roach.
Bruce say you can tell
a St. Clair Village roach,
cuz they don't run
when you cut on the lights.
Encyclopedia say in some countries
people eat insects,
I wonder if they eat roaches?
Sometimes me and Bruce
go down to the laundry room
and squash waterbugs,
but don’t no water come out.
If you stay real quiet,
you can hear the shells scrunch.
All the spiders down there
are little & yellow,
except Daddy Long-Legs.
Encyclopedia say they ain't spiders
but LaTricia Taylor still screams
if you put one on her.
Bruce say he saw
two Black Widows
in the laundry room
jumping like cats.
I don't believe him,
his mother wouldn't leave him
in the laundry room by hisself.
When it's night enough,
God turns on the fireflies.
They be flickering
but not like silverfish.
Last week we caught fireflies
in a Coke bottle.
Bruce gave them
to this girl Terri he likes,
she washed'em out
and got a nickel for the bottle.
I told him he shoulda
gave her a caterpillar,
Encyclopedia say
they become butterflies
and all girls like butterflies.
Bruce say there's more Nature
in the woods behind our projects,
them bee stings must
have scrambled his brain,
because everybody knows
Nature's in Encyclopedias.
