I
Purity in its truest form
Dancing above the waves and lilies
Red, yellow, green
Dots against soulful blues
Nourished by the breeze itself

II
Ghostly on my shoulder
Weighing the stones in my soul

III
The sun rests
On a dragonfly’s scales
It’s yawns are visible
On the tips of its wings

IV
Prismatic dragon
Scales ultraviolet
Ancient
Armored
Safe

V
Aquatic prisoner
Sheltered from air and light
Waiting under the second sky

VI
An agent of the most meddlesome gods
Messenger to the discouraged
Reminder of grief
Comforter to the lost

VII
Horse stinger
Snake stitcher
Devil’s friend
I agree

VIII
Elusive secret keeper
Whose ears are too far to whisper to
Oh what breaths I would share

IX
Scientifically simple
Spiritually overwhelming
Good luck charm
Or bad omen
Depending on point of origin

X
Four iridescent wings
Veined, sectioned
Beating thirty times in a heartbeat
Labor so strenuous
For a spirit made of wind

XI
Ageless
Mythic in both beauty and purpose
A serpent in life
Flight found only in rebirth
Metamorphosis

XII
Returned friend
Paused briefly on naked skin
My questions unanswered
The burn of death where four feet rested
Have you found happiness?

XIII
The sun rises in the east
The dragonfly stirs at death

Freedom:

A
  dragonfly
   perched on an antenna
     of a car.

Free to sit
Free to watch
Free to leave
Without causing a big scene.

Hello everyone,

  I'm so very sorry … I feel horrible doing this, but I have no choice. You see, I have published my first book on Amazon/Kindle! This piece (and many others) had to be taken down because they do not allow published material to be available online for free. (Go figure) I wanted to leave the shell of the posts because I felt compelled to leave all your helpful and loving comments. (Silly sentimental, I know), but I also didn't want to just have the pieces disappear without an explanation. I feel bad enough as it is!

  I owe ALL of you so, SO much for all of your reads, love, and support. It was YOU that gave me the gumption to FINALLY get off my **** and publish! Thank you all for the warm comments, camaraderie, and encouragement! I will still be here, reading, uploading and just being the Rascal that I am. How could I EVER leave you guys?

  The book is called “The Way I See It – FictionPhilosophySoul Food” and it will be FREE for the first few days on Kindle Select, so watch for it, if you are interested. I hope that you go and grab it. If you do, I would also hope that you find it worthy, you would leave me a good review. That will help me get in the public eye! Soon afterward (2-3 days or so), it will be available in paperback.

Find the book(s) here: www.amazon.com/author/jeff.gaines

Or find the book(s), and all about me, here: www.JeffGaines.world

  Soon after, I also hope to have my first novel (a supernatural thriller), called “Wanderer” available as well!

  Wish me luck!
Big, Biggest Love,
        Jeff Gaines

I was somber that Tuesday
Thinking about my lack of success,
I pondered giving up
And letting my current body
be all that there is…
A life over, a life ended.
I was watering the black-eye Susans,
they being just bright green smidgens,
Sad in September, missing my mother…
And a Dragonfly flew up to my face and landed on my neck,
Normally I would have shoed it off,
When younger I might have killed it.
It took the time to inspect my neck,
…turning about and tickling me too-
…near-hysteria waiting; waiting for it to leave,
And then it flew to an oak tree in front of me
And stopped to look back-
…at me?
Then it left.

I thought of a movie about coming to terms with death and a Dragonfly…

                                                     ­          Why did it stop and look back?
Thanks Mom for cheering me up,
…even though I am crying.

soaked dragonfly, yellowtail tailskidoo

I killed a bee today,
It reminded me of a classmate
Lost years ago.
I saw him leave with a smile,
A car ate his chest.
As mine
Killed a bee.
That's the problem with motorcycles
On the road;
In a car
Nobody notices,
Dragonflies,
Fireflies,
Regular flies,
Some misfortune cats
Tired of having so many lives.
I wiped a bee off my jacket,
Like I change the channel.

I wonder when
Trapped inside
The dragonfly feels
Every inch of the walls
Curbing her from the sky.
Does her path know destination?
Or does she wait for a gap to the wild blue
That will never come?
I know her fatigue
The steadfast despiration of
Looking for an out
False windows grant
A glimpse of a simplistic freedom
Where carving the air has become
A fading dream.

Did you drop into existence,
light as a feather,
or did you make the world implode
with your erupting presence?
300 million years ago,
animal but human,
human and needy,
riding on backs of giants
to travel to farwaway places,
and then soaring...

Extracting anger and desperation,
tying yourself tight to an image of hope,
to an image of transformation,
so we humans can only desire
to be worthy of your donation...

Nothing flusters you,
and even though your wings
are both blue,
there is nothing sad about you.

You tuck away the empty chasms
of a soul made to feel too old,
made to feel that it should not
aspire to be the sun,
but merely its shadow...
and you paint their
switched off, tired eyes
with ineffable hues of strength.

Dragonfly, you show me
that through your years,
you've cried and you
fought your battles and
some old parts of you died...
and you showed me that
rebirth and imperfection
aren't missing but whole,
that mess isn't haunted
or unwanted but needed
for exploration...

If every particle of ours,  every chemical
that went into a single thought
could be stored away in its designed,
picturesque room,
how could we claim to be mysteries?

Dragonfly, now it's my turn
to give away my pieces of decay,
let them burn.
You are expectedly lingering at my window,
you've always been,
and I'll no longer keep you waiting.