Dragonflies In The Face Of Logic

I’m all about 
logic these days — it comes from

working so hard to forget that moment
four dragonflies landed near me

as I sat with a stranger
and mourned four dead people

on the anniversary of their death.
He hadn’t moved on and I kept thinking

we had little in common, I had no need to move on now,
really, I’d moved on almost completely

except for the one bad memory
I was here to exorcise.

When the dragonflies landed,
one at a time,

on the bench next to us,
I held my breath and pointed them out

to him and put an arm around his shoulder
as he cried, as I did not; if it made him feel better

that was good though it meant nothing to me, really,
it might have once but now, nothing, really.

Insects, avatars, signs from on high;
agreements the universe seems to offer you:

steer clear if you don’t want to faint in public
all the time from the barrage of messages.

Stick with logic.  They died, they’re dead,
you’re here, they’re not.  Dragonflies are 

useful for pest control.  Lovely
to look at and plentiful, if you look.