A Poem by Roy Marshall

Dragonfly

I was seven when a headless dragonfly
flew by. I can see it now,

electric, metallic blue, transparent winged.
Although, with all the decades

in-between, I don’t know if I watched
the moment of beheading, or imagined

how a lorry dealt what was surely
the fatal blow, or the way the guillotined insect

rose from the road. But the unreasonable
compulsion to live, the implausible

continuity of existence, these
I have witnessed.

Roy Marshall's first collection The Sun Bathers, (Shoestring Press) was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy award. His other books are The Great Animator (2017) and After Montale (2019). Roy was a nurse, and more recently, he has been teaching creative writing.