Two of “Nine Dragons” (Chen Rong), Sonnet #581

The dragons follow us around,

Sneaking in and out of the mist, 

Shrieking nonsense, a silent sound,

Lonely and hungry to be kissed.

They are two of nine ancient worms

(A magic number in godly terms):

Each is older than the other;

Each is no dragons’ brother;

Each has a near toothless maw;

Each has lost all but one claw.

Out of this frightless paucity,

They have this one audacity:

Yolky eyes loll in scaly lids,

Laughing at our egos and ids.

My book of the first 200 of these sonnets is now available for purchase at Amazon. Click here:

My Human Disguise.

Dragon (Hokusai), Sonnet #519

The first dragons were fireflies,

Flickering motes of breath made light —

And then a moment of insight:

Great creatures of death must arise

(Like half-seen floating seeds of sun

Grown winged, clawed, fanged, and enormous,

Lungs furnace hot and vaporous),

Monsters from which most men run.

Not all. The dragon was lazy,

And slept for decades in hazy

Caves, dreaming of nothing men dreamed.

Its scales and half-lidded eyes gleamed.

The wisest men approached and stroked

Its face with love. It never woke.

My book of the first 200 of these sonnets is now available for purchase. Click here:

My Human Disguise.