Dragonfly Poem by Barry Middleton

they can do
60 miles per hour.
they can eat
60 mosquitoes,
and then can devour
5 bees and 3 flies
and 12 ants
of small size.
they come
in all colors
and shapes.
they decorate
Amerindian plates.
some thought
them evil
like a cotton
boll weevil.
but to some
they bring luck
like a first
hard earned buck.
they're medicinal
in old Japan.
they gobble
them up in Saipan.
but here
in the States,
we observe
their brief fates,
in the summer
as wintertime
patiently waits.