The Dragon Slayer
Location
Standing still
quiet
divine
Mind and body, lost in time.
Spaces away; alone; apart;
A larger picture,
Closer to heart.
Falling
Faster
Farther
down.
Lost to sight; feeling; sound;
Chasing away the broken smile
of a hundred years, from a hundred miles.
Each little step,
each toe in the dirt,
echoes louder this feeling of
hurt.
So away you travel
as you know you must,
chipping away at this
strong
fractured
crust.
It’s a thing you have carried;
a thing you have known;
a thing that you cling to,
fear of being alone.
But the things that are
pressed
to the back of your mind,
are the things that will
save you;
It’s just a matter of time.
So cast off your shadows,
the pain and despair.
But never pretend
you’re the only one there.
The only human being who
graces this earth
who knows of the nightmares and demons and hurt.
You are not alone in this
harsh, blood-fed world,
that tethers and batters and punches
and hurls
you finally into the icy blue depths
of the oceans below,
Never catching your breath
For the plumes of volcanos
and the breaking of faults
will come soon enough;
No signals of smoke
can rescue our fate
from the hunters of night that are lying in wait.
And no digging of moats
‘round our steel castle walls
will keep out the monsters
that threaten our halls.
Nor brave men of country
can rescue our souls,
from the pearly white gates
or the fiery hole.
A million questions
ask how this could be.
To deny such truths from our short history,
a story where knights and valorous
men can slay mighty dragons
not with swords but with pens.
And though we’ve not seen them,
for we came too late,
their stories are carved into great slabs of slate,
And of course we believe them,
for how can we not?
We’ve been ingrained with their tales since
we were asleep in our cots.
The legends we hear of things
long unseen fill us with hope,
But beware, they can lead
to a slippery slope
that falls in-between
the truths you can gain and the dreams you will find
hidden deep behind the faded ink lines.
So look, and look closely
at the dragon slayers and swords.
When, after all they were fighting with words
that fall off the pages in long, leafy trails,
along with the remnants of a few dragon scales.
They puncture our hearts and harness our minds,
finding at last
their place in our lives.