Standard

Posted by

Posted on

November 5, 2014

Posted under

Photography, Poetry

Comments

28 Comments

Dragon Dreaming

“He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep.
Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart,
he had become a dragon himself.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Bracket Fungus on log

He napped on the wealth of the world,
The heart of the wildwood beating in his ears,
But his sleep outlasted the wood itself.
Over the years, earth and twigs covered him,
Turning his sunny glade into a fairy mound.
When he woke, his scales were soft as bracket fungus,
And his hide was frayed like the bark of a fallen spruce.
All around him, houses stared down with blank eyes.
A bridge crossed a brook where children swung on bars,
Screamed and chased each other around plastic cars.
The sweet smells of red woolen sweaters, sticky candy fingers,
Grilled cheese breath and ripening juniper berries
Teased his nose, so different than leaf mold and lichen.
He remembered the beating of the wildwood heart,
Loud as thunder, steady as rain, but he could not hear it.
His greedy heart stirred. His claws churned the earth.
Clink, clink, his treasure was safe. Gold gleamed below him.
Its musical ringing soothed him. He remembered winning it,
When the forest were young, kings foolish, and no amount
Of stone or brick could hide the scent of gold from him.
His youthful memories brought dreams and in the gloaming,
He dozed again, his green eyes dimming, his breath stilling.
The woods would return one day: the seeds were there.
The day of the dragon would return with the wildwood.

Copyright 2014 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: Were you the kind of child that imagined dragons under the hills and fairies inside the flowers? If not, maybe it’s not too late to be that child now. What would you think about, if you were a dragon awaking in suburbia?

28 thoughts on “Dragon Dreaming”

  9. Reblogged this on 21 Shades of Blue and commented:
    Lovely poem by Brenda, who I found out about the Tanka form from last January. I posted my first one at http://21shadesofblue.com/2014/01/06/the-gloaming-tanka/ which also spoke of dragons and used the word “gloaming” and envy. Thanks for giving me my love of Tanka, Brenda, and for another amazing poem 🙂

    “The Gloaming”
    by Ry Hakari

    Luminescent wyrms,
    gloaming skies as Arctic guides
    Roaring Aurora
    Borealis’ envy’s green,
    jealous of city light’s love

    Like

    Reply

  10. I enjoyed this story/poem. I loved all kinds of tales as a child and still do (The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy and The Lion, the Witch & The Wardrobe remain some of my favourites). My heart will always remain childlike – keeps me young!

    Like

    Reply

Comments welcome!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.