Luciérnagas — Clock Counting

AUTHOR NARRATION

Hear the poem.

Read by the author in the original English.

LuciérnagasEnglish narration

AN EMBER CONSTELLATION

Polygon of Flickered Points

Hover over the illustration—or focus it with the keyboard—to leave only the cigarette embers illuminated and reveal the polygon between them.

Five adults smoking and talking in a church parking lot at night. — 01
**Polygon of Flickered Points**
The ordinary embers become a momentary constellation.

The same scene in black and white, with the five cigarette tips glowing and connected by a faint pentagon. — 01
**Polygon of Flickered Points**
The ordinary embers become a momentary constellation.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

The Man Behind the Poem.

The first man I really fell in love with—unrequitedly, I should add—was a graduate student at my university who hailed from Monterrey, Mexico. One of our foremost shared interests was words and languages. He taught me the Spanish word luciérnagas one special summer night amidst the glow of these beautiful bugs.

SOUND + STRUCTURE

Finite Simple Symmetry.

While this poem is short and simple, there are some structures and symmetries among the words within it that I find elegantly satisfying.

Select or unselect the buttons below to highlight some of these patterns.

“luciérnagas” you taught me,

a species of a new sort

in this church parking lot:

one embered thorax glows

and then the next

until we make a polygon

of flickered points

along the rows of parking spots

unnumbered

unremembered

in this god-forsaken parking lot.

READER DISCUSSION

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