I tore a dragonfly’s wings today

My cruelty was not intentional, hastily I placed her on a leaf

She let out a wail, a painful cry of grief

It was not the limitless soaring she missed

but rather the potential to fly, the “what if”

the safety net whose sole existence was a blessing, the ability it gave her to take off if she everever she desired 

I did not sense resentment in her crocodile tears, solely a greater sized sorrow

the iridescent glow on her symmetrical appendages dimmed

she was fading away, effect of my jealousy

I jerked up, ready to confess

for I had committed the unforeseeable, pasting her broken fragments to my back would not encourage me to dive

In seeing her distress I clung firmer to the cliff, only now I wanted to jump with her

the envy of her option to choose, to stay put or to let go, had bottled inside me and I had felt threatened 

By the time I was struck with the courage to tell her, she laid motionless, bathed in my regret.