dragonflies

deery-lou.
today i saw some school boys catching dragonflies. the poor little creatures didn't stand a chance. the boys were climbing through the bushes. their little hands extended out reaching for the tails of the dragonflies. a majority of the boys were successful. clutching onto to the tails of their victims. they paraded around with their score. happy as could be. i saw the tiny wings of the dragonflies fluttering as they made every attempt to fly away. little did they know it was hopeless. there was one boy you had a dragonfly in each hand. hopefully the captors will have their fun then let their prey free. i hate to think that these poor little creatures will end up in a jar in some boys room. but then again i can't really condem them. i was a child too once using creatures that i found for my play things. when i was a wee little lad in florida i use to catch grasshoppers in the summer placing them in little plastic boats in my pool. we'd play titanic. the poor grasshoppers never had a chance; however, i never let them drown. the other big creature trend in middle school was to catch lizards. once caught we'd open their mouths and clip them to our ears to make earrings. not sure why we thought that was so cool but we did. and let's not forget the lighting bugs. whenever we'd go to new jersey to visit my sister and i would catch lighting bugs in a jar. we keep them in there for awhile and eventually let them out. its funny how as kids we have some fascination with bugs and little creatures. never afraid to touch them. play with them. then something happens as we get older. we start becoming afraid of them. they become evil like spiders, roaches, and bees. i'd have to say that out of those three i'm probably most afraid of bees. which is a direct result of being stung over 50 times as a child. it happened while we were visiting my grandparents in new jersey. poppop,my grandfather, took my sister, her friend, and i for a walk in the woods after hours of us nagging him. we came to this hill and decided to slide down. we had no clue the within the ground were a bunch of beehives. needless to say it didn't turn out pretty. the bees were pissed that we ransack their houses and attacked us. poppop did he best to try to swat the bees off of us but there were far too many. we ran back to nana's house screaming bloody murder. i think my sister was the loudest. my mom ripped off our clothes and throw us into a cold bath to try to relax us. my body was covered with stings. poppop managed to escape sting free. ever since then whenever i hear a buzz i completely freak out. perhaps onceday i can finally be over this fear but for now i'll always keep a look out for enemy number one...mr. bee.

be well...