Dragonfly
written by: Paul Thwaites
Like a thought, you stop,
Contemplating your own reflection,
In the pool’s still depths,
Hovering,
Whilst Summer flies by, high speed,
Hauntingly still ~
Fixed by the eye like an optical illusion
In your flight’s mandala ~
Your wings whirr and I sleep,
Eyelids tremulous like a man in a trance,
Fibrillating,
And over the pond your engines,
Hum with the power of drones.
In winter,
Your savages crawl, retractable jawed,
Dark in the silt, dangerous jack in the boxes,
That spring to snap,
From hideouts of weed,
All through the cold snap.
In the melt, you creep,
Plate – faced, a knight’s visored ascension,
Clamping the stems,
To bask,
Papery in sunlight,
Wings a glimmer,
Pumping up your nets in the sun.
Take flight,
Jump jet light to turn on a sixpence.
Light as my etherised eyes,
A zoetrope, stilled in flight,
My eyes sewn shut like a memory
By the canula of frozen flight.
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