Halloween Pennant Dragonfly
Celithemis eponina.
This handcrafted odonate
Circulating in a meadow’s
Summer skies,
Gliding in the tender blue
Like the remote-controlled miniature drone
That it likely is;
And when it alights
On the tip of a mullein,
This inch-or-two skimmer
Is art for art-in-the-meadow’s sake:
The ebony hatpin
Of the slender thorax,
The strawberry flight goggles,
The winning cluster
Of tiny wiry legs,
And the quartet of wings
Tinted burnt orange
And handsomely banded in brown—
Hence the not especially wary
“Halloween pennant.”
You may be tempted to search
For a proud autograph
Along the edge of a wing,
For an outrageous price tag
Dangling among the legs—
For the URL
Of the artist’s website:
For surely here is proof
Of an Intelligent Designer,
With a jeweler’s toolbox,
A miniaturist’s paintbrushes,
A watchmaker’s stash
Of tiny golden gears,
And not one scintilla of conscience.
*
Look: every mullein in sight
Is a heliport topped by a pennant.
See how their settled wings flex in the breeze
Like no other dragonfly’s?
You can imagine them resisting
A singular pull from above,
As if the Maker
Wants His boyhood mementos
Back in His heirloom toy box—
His collectibles
That had soared away
To join the flying circus—
But with tiny wills
Acquired of their own
They want to stay down here
And play a little longer,
Play in the vale of tears.
I would love to tell you
They feed on nectar
And spread the gospel of pollen.
But they thrive on nectar-seekers,
Snatched from midair
And methodically devoured alive.
They also charm
The birds from the trees.
As the Maker has surely warned them,
It’s a dangerous place for play.
*
Early autumn,
And the meadow where Midas had waded
Is gilded in goldenrod.
The tinnitus of the ground crickets
Is summer’s retreating echo.
In the cool evening twilights,
The last orbiting darners
Are the last American helicopters
Preparing to flee Saigon.
And the ranks of mullein
Stand charred and deserted.
The Halloween pennants:
Wreckage in the meadow grass.
Yes, those priceless pennants!
Those art-and-crafts collectibles!
Those biplanes of a bygone era!
Tossed away
Like so much gimcrack from China.
Thrown away with more on the way—
But no one can accuse the Creator
Of not recycling.
Maybe His indifference is redeemed
By being so perfect.
Still, we can imagine
A thundering ultimatum,
And the unresisting pennants
Levitating as one,
Shrinking away
In the chill blue Empyrean,
To be carefully arranged
In a walnut showcase
Restored for their homecoming—
A prodigal's homecoming
For these ravenous masterworks
From the heavens—
The fallen heavens
Of a fallen world.
¨