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May/June 2016 • Vol. XXXVIII No. 3 Nature's Nature |

Brilliance, a Valentine

Like fireflies   what I cook up    can present an unpleasant meal
           although what I produce      admittedly
does not glow
      although I wish I could produce glowy  larvae-like  things—
sestina, sukiyaki, manifesto—
        Like firefly glow

I turned on during courtship    Harold said so and

     he  himself       is brilliant
                       especially at nightfall

—though not from enzymes in his tail

Kimiko Hahn
Kimiko Hahn’s tenth collection of poetry Foreign Bodies will be out in 2020. She teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation, Queens College, City University of New York.

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IV

By Kimiko Hahn

What can I say?     The cannibal   Photuris firefly that        pounces          bites  then  sucks the blood     of the speciel other               for ill-tasting chemicals which it uses to protect itself […]

VI

By Kimiko Hahn

      Like Professor Sara Lewis  I view the meadow as a stage for passion and yearning    courtship duets and competitions for affection   cruel deception and gruesome death Like the Professor     fluent […]

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