Mayfly Poems | Examples

List of Member Poems

Brain’s A Mayfly

Why overthink
Why care about those who don’t matter 
4 hours pass

Whoever caused your pain 
Whoever caused remains a who
4 hours pass

When will that person play a role again?
When will that person be important?
4 hours pass

What is the reason you feel that way
What is the reason you allowed it
4 hours pass

Where is this person relevant?
Where is this person going to stand in next years?
4 hours pass

Now it’s the final 4 hours of this day
And four more hours of sorrow
4 hours pass
The mayfly passes

Quickie

In the next life if reincarnated
as a mayfly I am designated
it's good enough for me with nothing but fun
for twenty-four hours (under the sun)
until the race is run bonking here bonking there
I'll be bonking everywhere non-stop until I drop

Premium Member mayfly briefs

"This week is Awareness Weak," ... by the Poet.

the first time ever
interview with a mayfly
we've time can we talk ...


Premium Member Luminous Wings

Amazing to be glorious mayfly
Skimming over wetlands and ponds
People look at my wings and sigh
Iridescent colours I wield like a wand.

'tis sad my life is really fleeting
I do so love these sunny hours
Short, my life, but very pleasing
End is nigh in summer shower.



Pixabay image by: Prawny

The Mayfly

Our first kiss was a deathless Mayfly.

Ten years onward, we sit
in a Doctor's waiting room
as sniffling strangers.
She smells of baby-puke.

Sometime later,
she tries to sell me a cellphone
in Radio Shack
(still no recognition).

Sadly Radio Shack,
like long forgotten kisses,
is now a dead Mayfly.

Premium Member Mayfly Martyrdom

Note: Expanded version of Mayfly Martyrs

Such an ethereal beauty.
Petite in size but large on life.
One would not expect its duty
is solely for procreation.
Yes, just this one, and nothing more,
certainty is its life’s station.
Each stage is mostly aquatic,
feeding on plants and detritus.
Its life cycle quite dramatic.

Swarming thick as oozing slurries,
males hover above clear water.
Intrigued, the young female hurries
through the misty mass, emerging
to oviposit fertile eggs.
She ends her watery purging,
laying eggs beneath the surface.
She flails, crumpled and moribund,
or served as a fish’s room service.

Males sail to land where they perish,
having served their one prime purpose.
The process nearly nightmarish. 
But beauty – the perfect cycle –
perfect in the frantic frenzy,
sinless, sacrificial spiral.
Beauty is the unforgiving
two-year metamorphosis for
one day of long, lusty living.


Premium Member Mayfly Martyrs

Such an ethereal beauty.
Petite in size but large on life.
One would not expect its duty
is solely for procreation.
Yes, just this one, and nothing more,
certainty is its life’s station.
Swarming thick as oozing slurries,
males hover above clear water.
Intrigued, the young female hurries.

Emerging the gray mass, nightmarish,
lays her eggs, then crumples lifeless.
The males sail to land and perish. 
The beauty – a perfect cycle –
Perfect in the frantic frenzy,
the primal sinless spiral.
The process an unforgiving
two-year metamorphosis for
one day of long, lusty living.

Mayfly

MAYFLY

Just a day is all he is given
No surprise  wings so driven! 
Dragonfly, trout lie in wait
In turn the Angler casts his bait. 

Never even time to eat
His existence is so very fleet, 
Pass his genes, all else forsaking, 
Millions of  years in the making. 

Duty done and time to die, 
The river slowly drifts on by, 
He floats among a countless horde, 
Sleep well my friend, your line assured.

Premium Member time mayfly by

       so how was your life
  yeah i was expecting more 
       the day went so fast

By 
David Kavanagh

Premium Member A Mayfly Moment

a mayfly moment

an ephemeral
goal to preserve their breed to
five minutes of life

2019 September 04

The Mayfly Man

Today is for raising verve and fervor
Today is not for the self but for the serving
Today is a rag squeezed completely dry
Today is for finding out the what and why
The soul's search continues on this day
The right door opens when you're on the right way
Grab the bull by the horns and smell the roses
Keep your head up when they look down their noses
Today is for the taking, nay, the seizing
Today is for building the fire amidst the freezing
An underappreciated and taken for granted,
Overlooked seed that's ready to get planted
So get up and ask yourself "What am I doing?"
When I look at my self, are there cheers or booing?
Today is  something we'll eventually see once more
So today it's time to find truth and what's in store

Goodbye

Sun begins to wake
Mayfly on a summer day
final kiss goodbye

On This Day

Pomegranates in full bloom
on this splendid afternoon.

Mayfly sways on blade of grass.
Lazy clouds floating past.


Sunlit pond, still as glass.
If this day could only last.

The Arrival

An easy breeze blows softly
through the pitch pine trees.

The mayfly knows 
it's time to find the lily pad.

Squirrels in search of nuts
tucked away for such a day as this.

All creation cries with joy-
summer has arrived.

Life Spans

forsythia fades 
redwood stands a thousand years
     Mayfly lives her day.

Sub Categories

Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.

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