Porto

 

Rain splatters

on barren morning-chilled hillside,

washing the bodies of spent fireflies

down gullies towards the sea,

where, joyously barking,

Apollo, released from the taverna,

snuffles and digs in the sand.

 

Doves leave cotes,

landing in pine trees

to snake their heads with pleasure,

and watch, as the dog runs into the shallows,

creating ripples that spread into the bay

and lap against the rocks,

who play hide and seek with the dancing waves.

 

Below, sea anemones cling,

waving and tasting the water for food,

in the eddies stirred by the sand eels,

who retreat into burrows

as a squid pulses through the water,

towards the dolphins playing

at the edge of the bay.

 

I stand silently

on a wind-stirred headland,

where the four o'clock flowers bloom,

knowing that tonight,

once again,

the fireflies will dance in the dark.

Poem by Jaqui Fairfax

Image by SacreBleu on Unsplash