The Dragon

by Andrew Gyll

winter4A mother of serpents,

translucent as death,

she is hygiene and chaos;

abhorring stillness

she devours corpses

at the bleak sea’s

slow edge.

 

A strange compassion

resides in her

reeking breath,

her eyes are soft,

unblinking;

she lowers her scaly head,

nods … she is silence,

a seed of empathy

and comfort,

an unlikely ally

in the hostile land.