The shell floated,
a streak of yellow,
on the pale lavender river,
Provencal colors van Gogh
might have painted there.

No rower appeared
to set to motion the scene.
Stillness held. Rushes
stood erect in the breezeless
day. Appeared a dragonfly!

How like a miniature
shell, airborne!
Wings its oars
rowing the air,

as would later the rower
appear a dragonfly
streaking yellow the lavender
river, in his shell.

Philip Kuepper
(2 June 2015)