Fireflies

by Angeline Schellenberg

Leaning against the weathered doghouse, Dan shivered. Though the sky was shrouded in clouds, the stars felt so near. When he closed his eyes, he saw his mother, just lying there, coughing and coughing. Dan grasped the air and closed his fist, over and over. He smeared the sides of his shoes until they glowed. Then he ran—a trail of borrowed light.

6S

Angeline Schellenberg's debut about raising children on the autism spectrum, Tell Them It Was Mozart (Brick Books, 2016), received three Manitoba Book Awards. Her new book Fields of Light and Stone (University of Alberta Press, 2020) is an elegy for her Mennonite grandparents. Angeline hosts Speaking Crow — the longest-running poetry open mic in Winnipeg, Canada.