A Poem by Jenny Qi

The Magnificent Capacity of Two Fireflies

When stars flicker out, you want
to believe in reincarnation.

Maybe in another life, you’ll be
a firefly, and I’ll be a moth

following, drawn ceaselessly

into your light.  Or perhaps

I will chase you like daylight,
follow from the in-between.

Or I’ll become a firefly with you

so in untainted darkness, you’ll find me

still believing the wisdom

of white flames and gas.

Jenny Qi is a PhD student in biomedical sciences in San Francisco, which is a fancy way of saying she’s putting off adulthood by pretending to cure cancer.  In her spare time, she draws science cartoons and writes for Synapse. Her essays have been featured in Huffington Post and The Atlantic,  and she has published poems in various journals, including the vanderbilt review, Tabula Rasa, and The Quotable.