CAMPFIRE LULLABIES

CAMPFIRE LULLABIES

Real stories tonight, she says, not/made-up. Like what I did, summers when /I was her age: ---From “Real” by Luisa A. Igloria

(For Chloe and Louis)

1. Then

Something about a canopy of stars

and the darkness among the pines

must turn them into giggling elves
traipsing among the  lantern flies.

Bugs with lit tailpipes, he calls them.

She stifles a guffaw, shushes him:

you will wake the hungry bear up.

Would you want to wake up inside

his swirling stomach? He whispers

under the tangled sheet: tell me more

stories, real ones this time. About

how you and abuela stopped a bus

while crossing the street, and she

gave the yelling driver her fat finger.

2. Now

Here we are, imp of a brother grown

beyond those yarns. Will you tell

your own boy---raucously laughing

all by himself in his dimly lit tent---

the same grandmother stories?

“Once upon a time,” will not do it,

they grow quickly beyond that.

Why not lull him instead with one

of grandfather’s  hammock songs?

“When you talk to these trees,

they will always answer you: Close

your eyes tightly, we will sing to you.”

Here we are, imp of a sister, plotting

lullabies by campfire, when sons beg: 

Will you tell us real grandma stories?

---Albert B. Casuga

07-20-11