Every Day,
A Century

Four-part Venn Diagram

Four-part Venn diagram with jellyfish at the center: strong things, stinging things, vulnerable things, things that glow. A man named Schmidt let seventy-eight varieties of insect sting him because he wanted to know how each burned. Fireflies don’t sting but glow, a different chemical reaction. I never learned the periodic table. Should I regret this? Boys crush fireflies and smear the shine on their bodies; run screaming into the night. You’ll regret this. We glow without reason. I can live without regret as well as anyone. Fifth category: things with exoskeletons. Locate me. Tell me I've heard bones crunch before.

Virginia Lee Borges

4/5/2012

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