Fireflies – a poem by Donald Adamson

Fireflies

They’re like Christmas lights,
twinkling points in the hedge and in the grass
until you catch the jink and swerve of them,
the small dyings and fadings

of creatures invisible by day, unless
an entomologist with ground-fixed eyes,
hunkered, finds a plain, dull carapace
and says the Latin name. Now, in the gloaming

they flash on-off, on-off, like lighthouses
on airy capes, transient brightnesses
with darkness in between, each a tale
in our own mortal book –

lives like sparks of flame, photons
that take wing when the sun sets
and signal to their fellow travellers
across the universe.



Donald Adamson is a poet and translator from Dumfries, writing in English and Scots. He currently lives in Finland. He was a lecturer in the universities of Helsinki and Jyväskylä, Finland, and has translated Finnish poems by Eeva Kilpi, Lasssi Nummi, and others. He has won prizes in many poetry competitions; also translation competitions, including first prize in the Sangschaw Competitions in 2017 and 2022. His collections include Bield (Tapasalteerie, 2021) and a co-authored collection, A Beatin Hert: Poems and Photographs from Rheged (Hatterick’s House, 2023).