the night lanterns

[fluorescent.43]

the night lanterns

She’d started collecting fireflies,
their dried, lightless husks husks already implies dried, so i'd x dried in favor of lightless.
filling up old mason jars; ending this stanza on a semicolon seems odd.
 
she refused to throw them out why no capital to start? is this stanza meant to join up with s1?
even after they’d lost their glow.
 
I never knew Mama to be afraid of the dark
but she said so one day when I asked
why she kept them. really like this. succinctly written.
 
The jars still sit on her windowsill, don't think you need "still" because of the below lines.
clean and empty of husks,
a vanilla tea light candle inside each one now. is there such a thing as vanilla tea light candle (probably there is)?- seems too many words to describe a candle.
 
I’ve lit them every night since she passed; debating the importance of "I've"- think ending this line on a period would be better.
people ask me why, but I don’t answer.
They don’t need to know that I’m afraid of the dark.
 

this was a good read! the simplicity of tone (be careful that your poem doesn't cross the line over to prose) fits the subject matter. i'd suggest paring down some of the words to streamline it further, but not so much that it becomes minimalist. also, a personal nitpick & opinion: the title isn't capitalized, but most of the poem follows standard capitalization. i like consistency, but really it doesn't matter. good job on this one! enjoyed it.