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elegantly posed to death
by Meghan HelmichI am walking through
the tropical winter
full of still dragonflies.
Peacefully folded arms cross
in an invisible coffin -
Wings stretched as first flight.
Perching and frozen,
arrested motion
after years of submerged youth.
The nymphs dance up the reeds
for the first breath. Lungs
emerge from thick-skinned gills.
Becoming barely a dragon scale,
weightless and free of form,
flight tunnels to the abrupt end.
A mid-air stop and tailspin
onto a cold stone face
wrings the last beat and flash
of the precious flapping pearl. 11/13/2008 Author's Note: incomplete(?)...and title borrowed from the song, 'posed to death' by the faint.
suggestions welcome, as always.
Posted on 11/13/2008
Copyright © 2025 Meghan Helmich
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 11/13/08 at 04:58 PM This is really very beautiful. |
| Posted by Glenn Currier on 11/13/08 at 05:19 PM Your poem is a jolt to the imagination - images crowded my mind's eye as I read it. It beckons a third and fourth read... so... I am off to the top of this page again... Thanks for a beautiful poem. |
| Posted by George Hoerner on 11/13/08 at 08:48 PM Very well done and so touching. Nature has its own way of dealing with everything. Whether we know it or not death is one of them. |
| Posted by Nicole D Gregory on 11/14/08 at 02:34 AM ...wow... absolutely beautiful... ~N |
| Posted by Tony Whitaker on 11/14/08 at 04:10 AM Now don't go messing with this as it is a beautiful collage of senses from just one glimpse of nature's wondrous world. |
| Posted by Charlie Morgan on 11/14/08 at 05:14 PM ...i'm Shultz on Hogan's Heroes...'i'd change NOTHINK!, NOTHINK! i agree w/ all the above, glenn says it best...a wonderfully goooooood write. i can see the dragonfly still her wings...oooh, real texture in this one...and out of it all--a flapping pearl...keen. |
| Posted by LK Barrett on 11/16/08 at 06:43 PM ...deeply visual, with cinematic pulses, starts and stops-lovely and complete, ty! |
| Posted by Steven Kenworthy on 11/18/08 at 12:17 AM ok, you're a great writer. i stumbled into this after your comment to find you have a style that appeals to me. your shifty rawness is delicious. this poem has burning to it. excellent. |
| Posted by Dave Fitzgerald on 12/09/08 at 09:41 PM I have to agree with everyone. This is a great write. |
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