Wake up, Creatures of the Earth

Once upon a time there was a dragonfly
who thought her pond was paltry, and trivial:
I’m a world citizen, this pond is too small for me,
she said to her dragonfly folks.

One misty morning she left her mossy home pond
for a trip over the horizon,
far, and beyond her paltry home pond.
She flew, and flew with all her will,
over icy mountains, dry soils, and deep lagoons,
she met many bright creatures, big, small and strange,
she counseled, and crafted plans with fellow world citizens,
and thus she forgot who she was.

One day, after uncountable days and nights,
on the summit of the highest, most impressive mountain
she came across an unsubstantial, misty pond
so much like her paltry native pond that she almost fainted with awe.
All was barren but for an ancient dragonfly resting on a twig.

“Where are the others?” asked the worldly dragonfly,

“They forgot, and were forgotten, like yourself.” said the old one.

“I’m not forgotten! I joined other world citizens!”

“Where did you find them, your fellow ‘world citizens’?
Are you all alike? Speak the same tongue?
Do you live on air, like ghosts in a limbo permeated with sameness,
or rather breath from the air, eat from the earth, and drink from streams?
How can you be worthy ‘world citizens’, if you are careless of your origins,
and the places you live?”

The dragonfly, who felt like a world citizen, fell deeply silent.
She stayed put, along with the ancient dragonfly on the twig,
for uncountable days and nights.

One misty morning she woke up, knowing who she was:
A creature of local lands, with linked roots all over the earth.