From a Zelda's Inferno exercise:
firefly
when we were kids we would catch them gently
running around my grandfather's yard on summer night
put them in glass jars with holes in the lids and a few blades of grass in the bottom
let them go at the end of the night
catch them from underneath, hands scooping up to match their flight, cupping the lightning bug inside
its flashing tail betraying it to our child-eyes
never wanting to hurt, just hold the wonder for a little while
later
first time I went to camp, nine or ten years old, other boys my age, me not fitting in much as usual but liking being in the park
evening, summer, games
some other boy catches lightning bug
"watch this!"
smashes it on my chest, smearing its glow across my t-shirt
casual cruelty still stuns me twenty five plus years later
if I had to summarize all that's stupid and wrong and sick in this world of men
in just one moment
the death of one firefly might do it