Overheard: Some people enter this world poorly equipped to handle it.

Yup.

Overheard: It's not human anymore. It's an outsider now.

The movie upstairs is scary. A demonic kind of scary that makes me afraid like I am small and mom wants me to get something from the disagreeably damp, dark stone basement.

Two weeks ago as I dropped a heap of laundry on the floor I heard something batting against the skylight. Rhythmically it collided and retreated from the glass. A bird? I stood below the window and looked. Nothing moving, but I saw a dragonfly perched on the edge of wooden molding. Had to be him.

Days later I saw his body face up on the wooden shelf. His legs were bent the way all things fold in death. The body turns in on itself. Life eases out like whispers. Free and roaming they leave behind their old clothes.

I had forgotten about the dragon fly, and I realized I could have spared him the spider's sticky binding. Four wings made more by thought than substance. One is torn. He struggled. I leave him where he sits on the counter, afraid to touch something that did its best to elude me. Huge eyes like black and gold oblong stones smoothed by water.

Several days later I hear something batting against the skylight...

Another dragonfly, and I am going to save this one. Trying to reach him with a broom for a few minutes, I finally leave for work.

Back to that heap of laundry. Letting the socks and crumpled shorts fall from my grip I hear something hitting the recessed lights and low ceiling overhead and I scream. Dragonfly….Grabbing a pint glass with a scene of Paris on the side and an overdue AT & T bill, I trap him. We walk outside. Goodbye dragonfly.

Is it their time of year? Is something driving them inside?

Reading about them brings me no answers, but some funny information: Female dragonflies lay eggs in or near water. The eggs then hatch into nymphs. Most of a dragonfly's life is spent in the nymph form, beneath the water's surface, using extendable jaws to catch prey.

They breathe through gills in their rectum.

They can rapidly propel themselves by suddenly expelling water through the anus.

I have to tell Jerry!

Lily perks up at my excitement.

Since their rectums did not propel them into the house, I stand there holding this question -- whywhywhywhywhy -- but it's as slick as an egg yolk.

Putting on my shoes that morning Jerry and I talked about aliens. I will believe that sooner than I accept religion -- the stuff of imagination and hope. The stuff of dreams and effort.

Aliens might be everywhere. They could be in the dust, Jerry said. They could be insects.

Agreeing with him I say, yeah, not all life has to be our size.

We may not even know about them, he said.

I have heard him say before that mosquitos, for example, could be the aliens, not a science fiction monster.

One more thing about the dragonfly: some nymphs even hunt on land, an aptitude which could easily have been more common in ancient times when terrestrial predators were clumsier.

Now for the rough stuff about dragonflies. Depending on the country, a dragonfly could be called the devil's darning needle, ear cutter, eye poker, eye snatcher, or are often associated with snakes, such as the adder's servant. Says the Internet: The Southern United States term "snake doctor" refers to a folk belief that dragonflies follow snakes around and stitch them back together if they are injured.

Also found online: A seasonal symbol in Japan, the dragonfly is associated with late summer and early autumn. More generally, in Japan dragonflies are symbols of courage, strength, and happiness, and they often appear in art and literature, especially haiku.

Dragonflies visit.

Two with gold eyes come to me.

Autumn on their wings.

Well, it's not perfect, but it's mine.

Maybe I'll try a haiku for Lily one day.