Swing in a garden, an apparition sits there
with a daddy in her heart, dirty sweater sleeve
gritty cheek, plump as an opened umbrella
she caught a firefly, and holds him hostage there

as a toad does, she seized the lantern yellow
insects beat inside, her heartbeat, a frightened bug
from the tree a dappled down winnowed light
metallic blue, the color of late day, the closing haze

this atomized summer. The flowers aren’t burning.