Mayflies In June

By Lenny Wells

A chicken-wire screen comes alive

With the trembling from my heavy footfalls

Upon grey boards worn by wind, water, and sun

Temporal wings aflutter in the June evening light

Swarming, covering any structure

Including my fleshly frame

With whisping, threadlike tails, lasting but a few brief hours

Requiring no food to energize their clumsy dance

Upon the warm currents of heavy, south Georgia air

But fueled by the joy of emergence

Freed from two quiescent years upon the lakebed bottom

Burning brightly, but for only a while

In the heat of a waning summer sun

From the vantage point of heaven,

The clumsy flights of men must seem as fleeting

©2019 Lenny Wells