Flicker

Last night children in the sky

played flashlight tag.

Mamaragan wanted to play first

and called Thor's house. Haikili

and Kaha'i saw them from across

the street and ran over.

Xolotl got permission

to stay up late. Zeus showed

up from the next block over

and showed off his new

flashlight. Kapoonis

shouted "Not it!"

just before Enumclaw.

Then they scattered, flashlights

blinking, skittering across

the clouds in the night heavy

as a blanket in the summer.

Their laughter bounced and

boomed, echoing on the damp

hot asphalt with its musty

smell. They stayed up all

night giggling, playing over

and over, and Xolotl always

got caught first, frozen

halfway behind a tree but

not fast enough. The air

as he panted so thick he

could taste it, taste the

jasmine and the wet grass

and the long stifling days.

They moved down the

neighbourhood, roughly

westward, a blue-white

flash flickered, skittering

across the heavy black

night and someone else

got tagged. Breathless,

laughing, Thor was the

last one being chased by

Haikili and then, boom,

crack: "I

got you! You're it!"