SWIMMING LESSONS

Dragonfly

A mystical dive with a divine creature at the deep end of the pool

Jenine Bsharah Baines
Scribe
Published in
2 min readSep 12, 2024

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Photo by Artur Pawlak on Pixabay

Flutter-kicking at the pool’s deep end,
working to strengthen my core while admiring
the transfigured gorgeousness, the raw yet restrained power
of my lane partner’s butterfly stroke,
the crisp instinctive slice of his flip turn

when I see
he is not the only one so perfectly skimming aquatic light waves

A dragonfly — no respecter of lane lines
But why should she be?
She is what she is

Hovering before me like a helicopter
Flaunting her hummingbird ability to backstroke
Clocking 45 mph
after she takes a last sip then darts past
my circle-swim partner into the oaks

Her wings, equally as mighty
They need flap only 30 times a minute

whereas
mosquitos require 600
houseflies, 1000
bees, 11,400

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Jenine Bsharah Baines
Scribe

J…Jen…Jeni…Jenine... Proper names are poetry in the raw. (W.H. Auden) Poet, singer, seeker, hippie grandmother gleefully revealing herself