Believe in the Dragonfly – A Poem

Though I was walking in the sun,

my thoughts were drawn to

the other day. I had seen the man

who used to be my husband.

It was odd, looking at him.

Here was someone that I had loved,

but now felt nothing for him.

Not a whisper or murmur of

affection, just an echo of

what was and what used to be.

I knew that I was different now,

no longer content to just exist.

I wanted to live, to connect

with the world around me.

I was living my best life,

the only way I knew how.

Still, my thoughts were drawn

to him, to what he represented,

to the time in my life that

he had filled, overshadowing

my own self. I knew that

I was different now, that I had

gone so far down the path

towards the sun that I didn’t

recognize myself or who I had been.

I stopped at the stone steps

that led up to the bridge.

Looking down, I saw the word

Believe

etched there in black ink.

I stopped to look at the word

and when I looked up,

I saw a dragonfly. It came toward me

and stopped to perch

on my shirtsleeve.

I looked at it, at the stillness

of it as it perched there.

It as if we were regarding each other,

or the dragonfly was trying

to tell me something.

I knew that the dragonfly

was a very powerful symbol

of growth and transformation,

that seeing one is a reminder

to embrace the light and

let go of the dark. I looked

at the dragonfly and tried

to hear what it was telling me.

As I watched the dragonfly,

it flew up in front of me,

so that I could see it completely.

Then it flew down to the word

at my feet and landed on it.

Believe.

Whether it meant for me

to believe in myself or

to just believe in magic,

in something greater than myself,

it didn’t matter. I looked at it and whispered:

“I believe.”

A breeze sighed around me

and the dragonfly flew away upon it.

I watched its progress until I

could no longer see anything

but the bright sun.

Believe.