He came dancing across the water

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Vivid Dancer, Argia vivida

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illustration by Liam O'Brien, for Presidio NPS publication/poster below

Kingdom:  Animalia (Animals)

Phylum:  Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum:  Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class:  Insecta (Insects)

Order:  Odonata (Dragonflies and Damselflies)

Suborder:  Zygoptera (Damselflies)

Family:  Coenagrionidae (Narrow-winged Damselflies)

Genus:  Argia (Dancers)

Species:  vivida (Vivid Dancer)

He came dancing across the water




He came dancing across the water

with his galleons and guns*

moving up and down thin blue ar-

rows black stripes under sheer wings.

On the shore many gather bright 

colors around the lagoon to feed 
    on flies eaten alive by fierce jaws 
      caught with hind legs and many eyes.

Sacrificed in chaparral of the past
  bravado and forked tongues. On

    the California landscape a rock
      star's 70s creation about the sun

for angry gods to see.*He finds a female, 

courts by bites, scratches.He still can't 

remember how to say she's beautiful.

Biology's unlike a wife owned or girl-

friend of no name. He-damsel grabs 

  her neck, she oviposits near or in the 

water. No one taught him how to be 

sorry.  Now grief and sweet unrest. 

He came dancing across the water,

with his galleons and guns.

Cortez, Cortez, what a killer, 

What a killer.* (Add electric guitar...)

*borrowed lyrics from Cortez the Killer, in NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE's album Zuma (1975) a late-70s live recording here: https://youtu.be/uX9k9aoX6gk

 

(photo credit: Lydia Schindler 6/4/14 Abbott's Lagoon)