All dragonfly photos by David Rushmer

. dragonfly .

look closely,
maybe this is not a
dragon,
maybe a may.
i am sure one of
you will know, or
will you only see
the seeds.
seeds from many years.
watch the garden grow.

sbm.

Golden-Ringed Dragonfly

There are still things
just over the fence, which can

surprise me. This mini-drone
zooms huge over the patio

bobbing and scooping
over hanging baskets

danger-striped and pencil-thick
writing summer on the air.

-Judi Sutherland

-Margaret Royall

The Wolfhound And The Dragonfly

It’s noon. The hound and fly collide, coinciding in the sun.
Her sudden blur confounds his questing nose. He splutters,

his hairy head diverts her flight, disrupting her intent.
She makes good her escape in complex counterpoint.

He follows her manoeuvres like a spy. His head is still,
his eyes beguiled. He waits. His mind is full of now.

The moment’s gone. She soars as he restores himself.
Nonchalant, they both move on, the dragon and the wolf.

-Clare O’Brien

rice grains heavy
against sky blue
red dragonflies

Plum Tree Tavern October 2019

-Christina Chin

Dragonfly Tattoo

Caught in freeze frame
Full flight suspended
Between
Time sped through days
Clear winged tears
Easily missed in mirrors
Until it disappears
On dragonbreath days

-Kate Mattacks @mypaperskin

Slow River

Cool green air
Slides over the reed beds at twilight:
Dragonfly water

-Yvonne Marjot

DRAGONFLY

She’s beautiful, beguiling, a diva.
A Hollywood superstar in her sparkling gown
of dazzling bronze and glittering gold.
Her slender body, filigree wings
transparent and yellow tipped.
She’s headstrong, obstinate, fierce jaws and fiery nature
A male drifts in, lustful, ripe
She spots his luminescence
dropping from the sky like Icarus
Clever, deceitful, an A-lister actress.

She hasn’t spent three years in water as
A little nymph waiting to bloom
To be taken and violated
She has been patient, shedding layer after layer
crawled from her own split skin
like a ragged child to stunning princess
She’s waited for her own sun to rise
before stretching her wings and taking flight

Her time is short, she knows it
Her strength already fading
Twenty or so sunrises left
She sashays over pale water lilies,
brash marsh marigolds
And waits for her own Prince Charming

-Carol Sheppard

(Note : Female dragonflies fake sudden death to avoid male advances)

Bios and iinks

-Judi Sutherland

(@thestaresnest) is a poet and wannabe novelist in County Durham, currently planning a move to Dublin. Her pamphlet ‘The Ship Owner’s House’ was published in 2018 by Vane Women Press.

-Kate Mattacks@mypaperskin–

I’m a researcher at the University of Reading with the Stories of Ageing Project. I support therapeutic writing workshops in hospitals and prisons. Trying to write more poetry, feed 3 dogs and be more human…

-Clare O’Brien

Previously PR to a politician and PA to a rock star, Clare is now trying to finish her first novel somewhere on the west coast of Scotland. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in magazines including Mslexia, Northwords Now, The London Reader, Lunate, The Mechanics’ Institute Review, The Cabinet of Heed, Nightingale & Sparrow and in anthologies from The Emma Press and Hedgehog Poetry.

-Christina Chin

is from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. Recently she won two of City Soka Saitama’s 2020 prizes. She is the 1st place winner of the 34th Annual Cherry Blossom Sakura
Festival 2020 Haiku Contest hosted by University of Alabama’s
Capstone International Center. Her photo-haiku won a Grand Prix Award in the 8th Setouchi Matsuyama International Contest in 2019. She is published in the multilingual Haiku Anthology (Volumes 3-5) and the International Spring Saijiki. Christina is published in Haikukai (俳句界) one of Japan’s biggest monthly haiku magazines. Her poems appear in many journals including AHS Frogpond Journal, the Red Moon Anthology, Akitsu Quarterly Journal, The Asahi Shimbun, ESUJ-Haiku, Presence, Chrysanthemum, The Cicada’s Cry, The Zen Space, Wales Haiku Journal, Prune Juice, Failed Haiku and Cattails (UHTS).
You can find Christina Chin online at WordPress: https://christinachin99blog.wordpress.com/. She also maintains an ongoing scheduled blog of featured and published haiku: https://haikuzyg.blogspot.com/.
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Christina_haiku?s=09
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/zygby22