Dragon Tower

The horse-man pauses at the gates 
silver stone gleaming in the dawn 
of a tower reaching to the clouds 
where a woman with long gold hair 
stretches her arms to hug the sun. 

Pounding on the door with his sword 
the horse-man hollers at the walls 
but his voice scatters in a flock 
of ravens erupting from empty halls.

The dragon rises from a bed of cups 
licking his teeth with a thick tongue 
to beat the wind with tattered wings 
and drops from the roofless tower 
claws unleashed to rip off his head 
but the horse-man whips up his spear 
impaling the dragon on his own weight.

The horse is crushed as the knight 
leaps in the swamp muck of the moat.

Baby alligators nibble at his toes 
as he thrashes to crawl from the suit 
of silver armor that gleamed so bright 
in the sun as he rode over the hills.

He crawls naked among aspen trees 
to the sparkling river where monkeys 
leap on his back and tug at his hair.

through pain-dim eyes the warrior sees 
a woman with long gold hair on wings 
of fire leap from the tower roof 
to bounce off the Earth toward Heaven 
with a shriek that shatters a mountain.

The Earth shakes and boulders tumble 
and demons from hell leap through cracks 
in the ground to flee bitter flames 
blinking their eyes at the suns glare.

The horse-man raises his hands to the sky 
weeping for the face of his old father 
to clutch his long white beard and play 
with the gold crown shining on his head.

Creeping through the woods the old woman 
with long gold hair hunting for ravens 
with a sling-shot finds the rotting corpse 
of a knight clutching his silver helmet.

CopyRight © 1992 Simon Seamount
Surazeus Astarius Gothinius Jesuvianus
Angelus of Anglonesia
Seattle Atlantis Anglonesia
United Nations of Earth

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