photo by Charley
This is day 23 of Days of Unreason:
“Such fragile wings.” – Jim Harrison
She dreads
family reunions.
One year she watched
her cousin Jimmy swat
a dragonfly.
Beautiful.
Blue.
Wings crumpled,
it lay inert on the grass.
She fears the darkening words, mostly.
A little over a year ago, I joined Jillys2016 in a challenge called “28 Days of Unreason.” She culled quotes from the poems of Jim Harrison in a book called Songs of Unreason. We used the quotes as prompts; diving boards suspended over the abyss of poetry. Jill is revisiting unreason, and I am skipping gleefully along. Come and join the fun!
We are seeking some shade at dVerse Poets Pub tonight.
Life in Portofino 
That’s a beautiful spin off. Family reunions are always such a dreadful things, they not only swat but joyfully play with the lifeless corpse!
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Thank you! Haha! Yes, very true!
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I know how she feels Charley. When I was young, ours were just a bunch of drunks in a brawl. I like the dragonfly perched on the leaf. Reminds me of fishing days
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A bunch of drunks brawling over fishing. Sounds like many families where I’m from.
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My wife’s family is good at reunions
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Somebody’s has to be.
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Sometimes family can hurt the most. The vivid detail of the dragon fly….expresses the hurt in a visceral way.
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That was my intention. I’m glad you saw that.
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Intensely beautiful in its pain, this poem. Outstanding, Charley! And good job of using a Shade synonym.
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Thank you, Jill!
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I admire the sharp and taut lines, leaving the reader to imagine the scene clearly, and draw conclusions on what is not said.
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I’m so glad this worked. I think it’s one of my best… recently. Poetry works best when its silences say more than its words.
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Such an aura of sadness in this brief but pointed poem. Well done.
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It is a powerful few sentences. I felt it when I wrote it.
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Dark words go deeper. Killing the dragonfly suggests those dark words are intentional. Nice interpretation of Harrison’s “fragile wings”.
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Thank you, Frank! Your saying so means much. And, yes… those dark words are always intentional.
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Dang, Charley. This is magnificent poetry.
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Thank you!
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I adore dragonflies. Achingly beautiful poem.
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Thank you! Our pond is a flurry of dragonflies every morning.
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… speechless …
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I’ll take that as approbation.
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Quite right. I had so many of those family gatherings I now avoid them entirely.
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I was shooting for an intimate portrait that had universal… reverberations. I wanted at least a portion of my readers to go, “Damn!”
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A poignant write, with much left unsaid. (Actually my family reunions are more like love-fests, but I’m well aware some aren’t.) Alas! Poor dragonfly.
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Yes… um, the bug or the girl? I’m glad you appreciated it. I’m also glad your family reunions are loving. I haven’t been made aware of one… on either side of my family… for more than twenty years.
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You’ve conveyed an ominous atmosphere so well, Charley, it made me shudder, particularly in the way you drew out ‘Beautiful. Blue. Wings crumpled,’ and in the ‘darkening words’.
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I’m glad. It was meant to be dark. The original didn’t have the word darkening. I added that for the dVerse prompt. I think this one has a universality that touches a nerve in some.
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Nice work Charley. We must be on the same wavelength. I wrote my Haiku about a dragonfly yesterday, but didn’t post until today. 🙂
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Thank you!
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Chilling & dark. Good, she avoids shady characters. Love the sharp, pointed words.
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Thank you! I wanted it to be somewhat universal, yet personal.
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Struck a deep and resonant chord. I loved the power of brevity and the emotional impact of your words.
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Thank you for visiting my sight!
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We don’t get to choose our relatives, shame for the dragonfly, there will be karma somewhere and Jimmy will get swatted back…
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Haha! Too true. But I really was just going for a universal thought that some could take in and say, “Yeah…! That’s my story.” Who knows.
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