the night lanterns

[Grace]

the night lanterns

She’d started collecting fireflies,
their dried, lightless husks
filling up old mason jars;
 
she refused to throw them out
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.
 
The jars still sit on her windowsill,
clean and empty of husks,
a vanilla tea light candle inside each one now.
 
I’ve lit them every night since she passed;
people ask me why, but I don’t answer.
They don’t need to know that I’m afraid of the dark.
 

I keep coming back to read this! It reminded me a bit of Owl City- Fireflies:

"But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar".

Oops! Haven't got any suggestions for changes!  I like the simplicity of it and the light/dark theme. The fear of the dark is  a secret shared by Mama to narrator and narrator to reader, but kept from people who ask why in stanza 5."They don't need to know that I'm afraid of the dark". I enjoyed this. Thank you.  Grace