Actually saw this happening for the first time in my life at Lake Awosting.

Ugly water bug.
Flattened brown torso,
Clumsy legs
Scrambling to climb out
To a dangerous ledge
Above the lake.
There it clings while a
Miracle happens.
Hard case splits and out
Peep two huge, dull eyes.
Tiny hairs on its emerging
Chartreuse thorax
Catch the sun’s rays
As it labors to escape;
Six legs flailing the air
Helplessly,
Struggling for freedom.
Wings so tiny
You’d never believe they’d become
The magnificent flying machines they
are.
They plump up and lengthen
As the dragonfly wiggles
To free its abdomen from its old,
Worthless jacket.
Finally free, it drops below,
Onto the rock ledge,
Possibly into the clutches of
Enemy ants who
Search for these infants,
To grab their soft eyes and bodies
To drag them away.
I crush one, but I am
Too late.
Both wiggle in death throes.
Some drop into the water,
Their unformed wings unable to
Dry and become strong.
But most survive,
Breathing,
Hardening,
Eyes glossing into
Multi-faceted cameras,
Wings gaining strength,
Until finally the uplift,
The take-off, and
Mosquito Hawk is now
The Hunter.