The Gig of Light

 
Let us now speak of The Gig of Light.

 

Let us speak as the buzz of bulbs, brilliantly or

vividly intoned as old-timers’ concert flashbacks.

 

Let our memoir-a-thon glitter and flit,

firefly in the face–vs–flash-in-the pan.

 

Let us speak long of The Gig of Light.

 

How we held the retina in a dazzle—

how we zapped the sun up for a second,

how we shocked with watts,

and perfect resolution.

 

Oh, The Gig of Light! The Gig of Light!

 

How we shimmered

aurora-like and arousing,

how we glowed

green-blue and crisp,

how we flickered

meaningfully or with menace—

 

How we streaked across the screen

and were seen no more.

 

 
 

Heid E. Erdrich is the author of five collections of poetry including Cell Traffic: New and Selected Poems from University of Arizona Press. Heid grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain.She teaches in the low-res MFA program of Augsburg College. Her forthcoming collection is Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media.