5

breaks away from it family
to inspect my wet leg
teasing a shiny blonde hair
lit by an evening Baltic sun,
its wings said to vibrate at 2,000
times per second, if

I reach to touch this
momentarily curious creature
it vaults toward the back lit
protective river reed sweet grass
or water lilies at 100 times the speed of one
length of its jeweled body,

Two species in short vernal contact
and how to compare us:
Zygoptera have lived 250 years,
possess keen 360 degree vision
eat mosquitos, never had a thought, yet
who is to say my kind are better
in the scheme of things?