Plains Emerald
Somatochlora ensigera
I’ve traveled a long way to meet you
all of my many years,
all the summers and summer storms,
all the winters and icy roads.
I’m the silent one
who walks the skyline
beside the Sand Hill River,
the silent one in the deep grasses
at the river’s edge,
inspecting the clouds,
the raining-down sun.
I watch you approach,
tiny winged horse with fiery green eyes,
flying, almost galloping, toward me.
Our lives touch just this once,
wings to fingertips.
Some knowledge is so strange
it forges words like thorns.
Some beauty is so unexpected
it breaks a life in half.
Scott King is the founder and editor of Red Dragonfly Press. He grew up in western Minnesota not far from Fargo-Moorhead in Pelican Rapids. His most recent work includes a collection of poems, All Graced in Green, and three books of translations by Greek author Yannis Ritsos. What drew us to Scott was his Rice County Odonata Journal, a meditation on chasing dragonflies. We would expect no less from this child of Aquarius, a tribe known for its high-frequency vibration and the pursuit of life’s mysteries. Some things in life need to be believed in order to be seen.