Dragonflies Mating

the wind that roughened the pool
has dropped; sun comes on hot

for azure and blue-tailed damselflies,
minute banners strung out down the reeds,

and dragonflies - skimmer and darter -
that aerially mate, clashing chitin;

one pair, male before female,
in horizontal tandem,

whips and dips the back-end
that's the female's tail in the water

to clean, cool and excite,
(or simply to oviposit

like that hawker, glistering-winged,
draggling from a lily-leaf,

as the male patrols, hoovering flies)
but that now she curls back thankfully

to clamp to him, arched at abdomen,
for a swift soaring together

in the shape that resembles a heart
(some think) or a buckled wheel

© Alec Rapkin