Read the poem ‘Fireflies’ by Matthew Bernier

Maine Poet Matthew Bernier Captures Grief and Wonder in "Fireflies"

A Belfast-based writer has published a new poem that uses the flickering light of fireflies to meditate on loss, longing, and the limits of human understanding.

Matthew Bernier, a civil and environmental engineer who restores sea-run fish to Maine's rivers, wrote "Fireflies" as part of an ongoing collection tentatively titled "St. Matthew-by-the-Sea." The collection draws on his move to Belfast following the end of a 30-year marriage. The poem was featured this week on Deep Water: Maine Poems, a collaboration between the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and Maine Public.

In "Fireflies," a speaker recalls being turned away one evening — and then noticing the bioluminescent insects lighting up the darkness around him. The poem weaves the speaker's personal sorrow with vivid entomological detail, naming species by both common and scientific name. The fireflies are identified as Family Lampryridae, and the poem distinguishes between Photinus pyralis, with flashing yellow abdomens, and Photuris pennsylvanicus, the Pennsylvania firefly, which pulses with green light.

The speaker catches one in his hands, describing the moment as "lightning not striking once that night / but over and over and over." A heavy mist soaks through his blue jean jacket as stars appear to fall on a meadow. The poem closes with a reflection on the gap between knowledge and feeling: "what I know of entomology / I don't know / about love, / mating beetles unable to eat."

Bernier has previously had poems published in Deep Water and in Maine Public's "Poems from Here." Deep Water is produced in collaboration with poet and writer Megan Grumbling, who lives in Portland.

Submissions to Deep Water are currently open and will remain so through the end of the year. According to the program's organizers, Deep Water is especially interested in publishing work from Black writers, writers of color, Indigenous writers, LGBTQ+ writers, and other underrepresented voices. Information on submitting is available through the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

"Fireflies," ©2026 by Matthew Bernier, appears by permission of the author.