as ten million fireflies
lit up the world as i fell asleep
❖
Momma calls them fire-flies, but it doesn't make sense to me. They don't look like the magic Momma Morr has- the kind that scares me half to death. They don't look destructive or angry. They don't flicker different colors.
"Are you sure?" I ask, my face scrunched up all confused-like. "They don't have fiery butts, just light butts." I feel confident that Momma might be mixing things up.
But then she tells me that you don't catch them either and it makes my eyes widen. "How do you wooooo them?" I say, putting more emphasis on the o's. I don't know what the word means, I've never heard it before. Did we need anything special to do it? Is it some kind of magic power?
When Momma starts dancing, I find myself getting distracted from all my questions. Maybe it didn't matter if I didn't know how to woo things because this was more fun to me. Momma Zahra has always been a really good dancer and I wonder if I'll ever be as good as her someday. I trot over to her side and try to copy her movements. It doesn't feel like it's going well because my legs just feel like awkward noodles that are bending in all different directions. I don't know what to do with my head, so I bob it up and down. While we're dancing, the fire-light-bugs circle us. One rests on her nose and there are a few that rest around my forelock. They tickle my skin, but don't seem phased by my dancing. Maybe they're having fun too.
"Am I doing it right?" I ask Momma, now feeling compelled to bounce in place. "Is this wooooing?" I hope it is because it's starting to be a fun game. Maybe I can teach Momma Morr how to woooo when we get back.
@"Al'Zahra" <3
