about the author
Hugh Behm-Steinberg is the author of Shy Green Fields (No Tell Books) and two Dusie chapbooks,
Sorcery and Good Morning! His poems have appeared in such places as Crowd, VeRT,
Volt, Spork, Cue, Slope, Aught, Fence, Swerve, dirt,
Zeek and Sweet, so now he’s working his way up to two syllable journals such as decomP.
He teaches writing at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, where he edits the journal Eleven
Eleven.
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Fireflies
Hugh Behm-Steinberg
The next life has more oxygen in it and classical lines, it is set lower into the earth, and the part that is intimate has a way of glowing, or when you’re turned on and your earlobes flush tiny lights appear in all of the windows of this place. The mantlemesh glowing white in all of the lanterns. To introduce joy even when there is so little justification for doing so, nobody has to teach you how to see in this light, you become one of many drawn here, the fragrance of lavender beside the kitchen garden out back of the temple I spend time in searching for you.