Jemma Green

Dragonflies in the summer air
flit through sparkler smoke
and tall eye-green grass.
Grass blades scratch my knuckles as I hold you,
closer than you want to be.
Holding onto you is getting harder these days.
Each day you want to go,
dragonfly,
and leave me behind.
Why won’t you let me hold you anymore?
Hold your transparent wings in my hands,
hold you close to my chest?
Let me hold you.
Don’t leave me here,
dragonfly.
Don’t say goodbye to me.
I can’t stay in this grass alone,
dragonfly.
Don’t leave me behind, don’t make me weep.
Just stay here in this long grass,
in my lonely hands,
between dying sparklers and summer sky,
stay here,
my dragonfly.
Author: Jemma Green is an emerging writer and editor based in Meanjin/Brisbane. She is currently in her second year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Creative Writing) at QUT. She works fluidly between fiction, non-fiction, and poetry with an artistic focus on creating work that reflects emotion and explores character.
Artist: Zoe Hawker is a multi-disciplinary student artist working with sculpture, installation, and painting. Her self-reflexive practice aims to decode the absurdities of our current culture.
Editors: Brock Scholte and Euri Glenn