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196
Manzana Cow and Dragonfl ies
-- there was a red lizard, brick
red -- and a red cow in the creek,
showing through the willows, sloshing
awkwardly upstream bawling
frantically for her calf,
which she had lost somehow.
Diving from overhead
came skipping across the pool
where I had caught the rainbow
two dragonfl ies -- Chinese red.
Then an electric blue
dragonfl y shot by too.
Then fi nest of all came one
(Christ! this was years ago)
the color of the air.
I could best see her where
she fl oated on the stone
in shadow-duplicate,
distinct where she was not;
seeming, herself, almost
her own faint-featured ghost
over her charcoal show
of self on things below;
and free of anguish there.
1982, 1992