Lantern

lighting my way home—

the same flickering lantern

that my dad once held

Nest

In the stone lantern

a young wren builds her first nest,

weaving hair with grass.

shaking with fever

at the lantern festival

a brindle stray dog

the small boy’s lantern—

a hundred captured fireflies

glowing in a jar

a solar lantern

placed upon the soldier’s grave

keeping watch by night

Among the red ones,

a single sea-blue lantern

flickers in the night.

The garden pool dark

after releasing the moon—

I light a lantern.