Tag: stone

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Perseus without a shield

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Like Medusa you look at me.

Changable eyes of every shade of grey

Turn from cynical self-deprecation

To cutting steel, glittering a warning.

 

And like Perseus without a shield

I feel myself grow brittle,

Cracks creeping up my spine,

Branching out across my back.

 

Almost an afterthought,

That polished shield.

I see my own grey abstractions there,

The long shadow I can cast.

 

Now I feel you close behind me,

Your snakes hissing in my ear.

I slowly raise my eyes to yours –

You see yourself in mine.

 

And slowly your bent head

Settles on my shoulder.

Like golden ornaments your snakes

Curl around my hand in your hair…

 

February 2019, copyright jsmorgane

 

 

 

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How to Converse with Dragons

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In the vale I chanced to walk
And – as fate would have it –
‘Do you speak Stone?’
The Hornbeam asked,
Sounding somewhat frazzled.
I stopped and stared,
And wondered to myself
How it could be that
Anybody would assume
That somebody speaks Tree.
This somebody, alas, was I
And clearly did I hear
The English Oak that stood nearby
Chuckling in my ear.

I frowned and spoke –
In Tree, it seems –
‘I’m really mighty sorry,
I don’t speak Stone but
I would ask what seems to be your worry.’
‘Haha’, the English Oak replied,
But the Hornbeam grumbled,
‘It is a tiny stone beneath
My root which has me stunted.’
So I bent down to dig a bit,
And found the troubled root,
There underneath a stone lay hid
Which gladly I removed.

‘Kind thanks to you’,
Said English Oak, while
Hornbeam was a-titter
With joy and mirth and
Frolicking his roots hither and thither.

I held the stone fast in my hand,
When I could feel it move.
Then open burst the pebble,
Which had me much amused.
A dragon coiled around my wrist
And snugly took abode
Half up my sleeve, half peeping out
Feeling quite at home.
While I still wondered at the beast,
It turned its shining head and
Regarding me the creature said:
‘You’re good at Stone, I give you that,
But I shall teach you Dragon.’

© jsmorgane (Jan 2014)