Lightning Bugs

Beyond the dirt road,

Beyond the gravel path,

Beyond the beaten trail,

Beyond the mountain pass

↟𖠰˚☀︎ᨒ↟𖠰

Lies a wooded glen

Nestled in an elevated basin

High above the valley floor

A stream of burbling waters glistens

𖠰˚☀︎𓂃ᨒ↟𖠰

Living communally in the secluded bend

all manner of forest dwellers come to water and feed

deer and badgers with squirrels and birds

The heart stills to sit, watch, and silently listen

𓃘𓆉 𓆌 𓆏𓆥𓆛𓅙

Retreating to a living pond, the call of a toad echoes

Twilight lazily sets the marshy lagoon aglow

Lightning bugs, and dragonflies swarm languid water

drawing you hypnotically across the lengthening grass

☆.𓋼𓍊 𓆏 𓍊𓋼𓍊.☆

As you push the blades away

you're enamored to find

Several fawns meekly bleat in sleepy recline

While mother drinks nearby at the stream

෴﹏𐂂ִֶָ෴

Though you followed a path

you've the eerie feeling

you're witnessing a scene, singular

treading on ground hallowed and green

𖠰˚☀︎𓂃ᨒ↟𖠰

Some might call it silent as death

They wouldn’t be listening

The roar of nature fills the air

Sitting motionless, the bedlam transcends

⋆⁺♪⋆ ི ᖭ༏ᖫྀ ⋆♪₊⋆

A family of swans shoves out to play

under the flickering fly lamp light

The raccoons scurry out under the moon

bringing scavenged treasures pond-side to clean

K.B. Silver

𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊☆.𓋼𓍊 𓆏 𓍊𓋼𓍊.☆𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊☆.𓋼𓍊 𓆏 𓍊𓋼𓍊.☆𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧

This was written based on a prompt: Fire Flies; Write about a secluded stream with lots of wildlife. Oddly enough, I just read another poem and commented that I had always heard them called Lightning Bugs, and when I looked it up, it would seem the regionalism is an East vs. West conflict.

I grew up in Missouri and Florida (sadly, we didn't have any in Florida, or here in South Lake Tahoe), and the Midwest and eastern states seem to call them lightning bugs. While the Western states seem to call them Fireflies. There were also some other smaller regionalisms listed, such as Flicker Fly. What did you call them growing up? Does this assumption hold true?