I will be reading for the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh on November 15th, 2026 at the City of Asylum bookstore. Below is a revision of an old poem set in Pgh. that I plan to read.
FIREFLIES IN A JAR
My best friend Bruce
is allergic to bees.
He say if he get stung
he might swell up
like a vacuum cleaner bag.
Then his Mama
will have to stab him—
with a peppy pen,
and he might miss school
for three whole days.
The Encyclopedias
my Mama got me for my birthday
from the Salvation Army store
say if a bee stings you, they die.
The dictionary say “salvation”
starts with an “S”,
but the dictionary say
“encyclopedia”
don’t have no ”S”.
Bruce say bees & grasshoppers
be dancing, sometimes
me & him run from bees
and catch grasshoppers.
If you pull they legs off,
the legs keep jumping,
but if you step on one
the shell goes scrunch.
Guess what else we saw?
A Praying Mantis!
Bruce’s mama say
God made the Praying Mantis
to eat grasshoppers
and to remind us
what to do before we eat.
Encyclopedia say mantises
are related to roaches,
but I don’t see it.
One time after it rained
I saw a silverfish
flickering in the laundry room,
it kept making the letter “S”
and had more legs
than my encyclopedia got pages.
I don’t know why
they’re called silverfish,
Encyclopedia say
they ain’t silver
and ain’t fish.
Sometimes at night
I be reading both books
under the covers
with a flashlight,
sometimes I even sneak
into the kitchen to see
what roaches be doing
in the dark.
I’m only seven
and I need glasses
but I'm the best roach killer
in our whole projects.
Encyclopedia say
it’s the nature of 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 & Bruce go
to the laundry room together,
the spiders down there
are tiny & yellow,
except the Daddy Long-Legs.
Encyclopedia say they ain't spiders
but LaTricia Taylor still screams
if you put one on her.
Bruce say he was by hisself
and saw two Black Widows
in the laundry room
jumping like Double Dutch.
I don't believe him,
his mama wouldn't leave him
in the laundry room by hisself.
When it's night enough,
God turns on the street lights
and then the fireflies.
They both be flickering,
but not like a silverfish.
Last week we caught some fireflies
in a Mason jar
and Bruce gave them
to this girl Terri he likes.
They all died,
so she washed'em out
and filled it up
with red Kool Aid.
I told him he shoulda
gave her a caterpillar,
Encyclopedia say
they turn into butterflies
and what girl don’t like butterflies?
Bruce say there's Nature
in the woods behind our projects.
Them bee stings must
be hurting his brain,
because everybody knows
Nature is in
Encyclopedias.
