He saw it,

He saw it,

On the dry side of the rain,

Lying on its back

Struggling to right itself,

A wondrous-looking Dragonfly,

At its most vulnerable

With its upside down.

A Magpie sat on the fencepost

Looking interested,

He shooed it off with a

Back of the hand wave,

Dismissive.

The insect was segmented,

Another wonder of the natural world

And bucked in a fearful frenzy

It would most surely lose the fight

The bird would come back

Too much of a tasty snack.

As a child, he had tried to save baby birds

Those fallen from the nest

Too soon,

Perhaps turfed out by a Cuckoo,

Taking them home to feed

With a dropper

They rarely survived.

A Hedgehog was too much

For his parents and he was

Told to put it outside in the cold

Where it died

He still worried about that.

The Dragonfly was tough

But its wings were wet

It must have suffered a direct hit

From the balcony run-off

And he wondered how it could be saved

Handling would damage the wings,

Doing anything might,

Doing nothing most certainly would

He decided on a spatula

From the kitchen,

Utensils always come in handy

Standing in a kitchen tidy

Waiting to be of use.

With a deft flick

Practised on pancakes

He turned the insect

Sunny side up and waited,

Breath bated

Until the sun had dried it out

And soon,

After a brief shudder

It stuttered into a rudderless swoop,

Before twinkling away

Into the brightening sky

Without a goodbye,

Not that he minded,

As for no

Discernable return

He had been a good Samaritan.