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As a child, have you tried chasing dragonflies across a meadow? Or watched them skim over brooks and pools of rain water? Some memories live like dragonflies. They can suddenly glide in, or glide out of view. Repeatedly, yet elusively. Catch them, and they catch you, and close the gap between the Then and the Now.
gliders

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we used to run after
colorful dragonflies
way back in the years
of a tender age,
they would come in
bright pure colors

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of red, pink, orange,
green, yellow,
blue, black or white,
sometimes with
shades and hues
mixed and sprinkled
over their bodies,
heads and wings,
gliding again and
again and again
over puddles, marshes
and streams,
lots of them
usually emerging
after the rains,
we would entrap them
with fine coconut-leaf
midrib sticks,
treated with sticky sap
of fruit trees, sometimes
some of their wings,
or a leg or two,
would break off their
alternately curling and
stretching bodies,
or their heads would roll
down our palms
as they struggle
in our fingers,
i could not be so sure now
if they were happy
memories,
____________
© SSJ 2011

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I like your question at the end …
Thanks, Dave. Yes, a question, a pause, whatever 🤔😊that forces one to mind the gap between innocence and guilt.
Dragonflies as memories – a thoughtful metaphor – especially when reading your poem 🙂
Thank you, Shirley.