Fuck / Factory Emissions
The thing about fireflies / these winged soft-bodied beautiful beetles / commonly called lightning bugs / that produce a cold light / low on ultraviolet frequencies / is that their lower abdomens glow green or pale red / Sometimes it is their larvae that emits light / like the kindling of a rebel's spirit before flaring in adulthood / Their wings are leathery / yet leaf-like / and adolescent bugs are quick to fly / like a teen to the open road / tail lights trailing in the sky's highway
Far above / factory emissions condense / to sulphur nitrogen oxide / commonly called acid rain / This will singe through tail lights / eat through wings / to make flightpaths lopsided / loose / like a teen driver / careening through traffic / tires melting / fated to die
Born in Nigeria, Inua Ellams is an award winning poet, playwright & curator. Identity, displacement & destiny are reoccurring themes in his work in which he mixes the old with the new, and the traditional with the contemporary. His books are published by Flipped Eye, Akashic, Nine Arches, Penned In The Margins, Oberon & Methuen.
