Over By The Fish Pond Poem by Len Webster

Let me get the tone just right: KAB-BEE.
So brief, but strong, the word I shall use
For what in English we call dragonflies.

Too noble to be flies, too fragile to be dragonflies,
and INSECT is a category that includes
Something unpleasant
So I'LL stick with the Northerners, the Muang,
Whose word KAB-BEE carries that suggestion
of strength,
Making KAB-BEE a law to themselves,
Subject only to the whims of the breeze
Bringing storm-clouds from the Western hills.


(Chiang Mai Province, August 2002)