Dragonflies of summer

Dragonflies. In summer, I greet them each day as I paddle upstream and down. My friend Ardyce often joins me in her yellow boat, a true joy of summer: time to float and chat. My daughter Kathe made this pair of earrings for me, in the blues I love.

My 3rd graders are researching animals, and preparing to write about them in a variety of genres. In addition to non-fiction, they will write poetry and personal narratives; they will imagine themselves as animals, and share what they imagine.

Here is my dragonfly poem, which hangs on the wall:
                           June 20

For me, summer began  at 2:11 PM today.

School closed two weeks ago.

Summer’s solstice has come and gone.

Days have begun to shorten.

So why today? Because of an annual sign:

As I paddled my kayak upstream,

I spied a flash of iridescent green

In flight.

Above the tip of my blue boat

She hovers,

Dips, and alights,

Wings spread.

Now I see all four:

Glittering narrow webs of black thread,

Opening from

A thin gray-green stem.

I gaze into her bulbous eyes,

Reflective like sunglasses,

And wonder how I must look

In her 10,000 lenses.

I blink and she is gone,

My harbinger of summer.

I paddle on, smiling.

Summer began today.

I left that world a month ago to return home for the school year. This writing project creates a bridge for me from summer to fall.