What was it?
I’ll tell you what it was
It was a dragon
A fire-of-hell-breathing dragon
A black beast of death-muscle-and-teeth dragon
And I was no hero
I was a child
Afraid of the night
So I fled from that beast
I buried myself in the earth
And deep under the sea
I built my own prison
And bore the darkened marks
On my flesh
Where the concrete walls
Taught me with their cold fists
That they would always hit back
So I stopped trying
Until that day the waters rose
Like a crown of thorns
Encircling my form
And I made one last attempt
To break free
Crying out
Why hast thou forsaken me?
Do you see me down here?
Scraping the rock of ages
Against these rusted metal bars?
Holding on to a dying hope
Like a final breath
Full of trace minerals and
iron-oxide
Nourishment for the journey home
In a burning wooden boat
Exhale
Collapse
My body limp
As the seaweed beneath it
That receives this mortal surrender
And do you know what this broken
body was?
I’ll tell you what it was
It was… a wedding gift
STOP! Change of plans
Fluorescent lights
Styrofoam coffee
A long hallway
Unfamiliar faces
Open doors
To open spaces
Freedom to a world outside
The question is
What (or who) has survived?
I called out to you in the distance
But the distance only spit in my
eyes
And when I went to clear them
And saw my own reflection
In the broken mirror
That’s when I knew
It was you
It was your life here
Drowning with me in that body of
water
It was you who replied
It was your life here
Marching foolishly forward with
people
Broken people
People who once thought
Fluorescent light and styrofoam
Were good ideas
These were your people
These were your reply
And because of them…
Because of them
I survived
