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Prendere Lucciole Per Lanterne (To Take Fireflies For Lanterns)

As midnight tolled its long count
our host Stefano tumbled down
into the oleander plants
around the border of the lawn.

Distant valley dogs were barking
as we pulled him from the fiori,
laughing and unspectacled.
We offered our grazie mille

then left along separate paths
diverging from the lantern light
into the spark-peppered darkness
of a new-moon summer night.

Feeling for the crumbled asphalt
with the soles of wandering shoes
I recalled Maria’s warning
about fierce cinghiali sows.

At an unremembered bend,
which may have curled its way to home
or the dereliction of a ditch,
a chariot of fireflies came

to carry me high and waving
like a flag of well, whatever
over olives, figs and walnuts,
then down from the wild Maiella

to the tattered edge of town
where leathery lucciole
wait for secret charioteers;
the depot where Giuseppe

works early morning shifts
before tending to his nursery
of aubergines and peppers;
the broken-windowed factories

empty by the autostrada;
the seaside conurbation
sleeping for a sunny day;
then back over corrugations

of coppi, to set me down swirly
at my door. How many it took
to fly a drunk I can’t be sure
they disappeared before I looked

but this I know: my clothes were torn
my shoes were in a dreadful state
– you let the fireflies light you home
and this’ll be the price you pay.

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Poetry, Music, Photos, and Video by the Author

Author’s Note: Photos all taken in a little village in Abruzzo in central Italy, where I used to spend time writing and walking. I’ve gone for a slightly odd euro-pop type feel to the music – be interesting to see what people think. The title is an Italian saying meaning ‘to get the wrong end of the stick’. And by the way, Lucciole – fireflies – is also the Italian slang for prostitutes! The poem is included in my book, Shaking The Persimmon Tree (Seacrow Press https://www.seacrowpress.com/ ), which has a number of poems set in Italy.