Monday, January 2, 2023

Here be dragons

There is a dragon in the walls 
And it is snoring 
Slow 
Softly 
At the edge of hearing

There is a dragon in the walls 
And it is snoring 
We must move quietly 
Breathe silently 
Whisper 

There is a dragon in the walls 
And it is snoring 
If it awoke there would be 
A fierceness of teeth and breath 
Destruction 

There is a dragon in the walls 
And it is snoring 
Tomorrow I will call 
The exterminator

Stairs

 The leopard stairs are soft and furry
The whiskers tickle your toes as you climb
Softly purring, almost asleep
We hope they don’t awake

The spider stairs are sticky and flimsy
They’re always hidden in dark corners
Waiting for you to come closer
You never know if you will make it home

The eagle stairs are loud and hard
Dangerously high and perilous
They soar and glide in the thermals
Watch out for when they dive

The shark stairs are pointy and raspy
They wend sinuously through the deep
Hunting you or something like you
Best to avoid these stairs

The elephant stairs are long and memorable
Gentle, warm wrinkles of repeated journeys
Slow moving but attentive
Caring of kin who climb them

The human stairs are geometric and boring
Symmetrical and repeating
No fun nor joy in them
We are stuck with the mundane

No sweetness in parting

The bard said,
'parting is such sweet sorrow'
As he held his beloved
And they kissed

For me,
There is no sweetness in this sorrow of parting,
At best, the sting of adhesive removed quickly from skin
At worst, you leave with my heart,
My chest a gaping wound

The separation brushes too close to abandonment,
The fear of no longer being of use
My past echoing to the present

Your return soothes the pains
The fears diminish
The tension remains
For soon you will go again,
And then you will come back.