Mother, Dragonfly, Mother

a poem for Lillian Alexie, born on November 23, 1936, and died on July 1, 2015

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Our late mother loved
dragonflies so when
that purple-winged
dragonfly landed

on my sister's hand,
we all decided
that it was our mother
paying us a brief

visit. O, dragonfly,
O, mother, thank you
for stopping to say
hello. We miss you.

We hope that you
return when each
of us is buried
in this good earth.

We hope that you
cradle us in death
just like you did
in our births.