Draconis
a dragon visited your dreams tonight / red and gold glinting from the wet darkness / from whence all nightmares come. / i have a gift for you, she said, / and you don’t know what you expected but it wasn’t this:
she let out a twisting, twirling plume of smoke / and you breathed it in so deep you felt it settle in your toes, / a taste like burnt light, or the brightest kind of darkness. / when she drew back you mourned the moment’s passing.
you awoke then with tears on your cheeks / and ash in your mouth, and way down in your plump toes / you could feel the flame beginning. / three gifts: the fire, the ash, the crystal tears. / you fell asleep warmed by the coals / and cooled by the water.
the next morning was clear and cold, / and nobody knew you had a dragon’s gift / pooled in your feet, cushioning your every step. / but you knew, and you walked a little taller, / spoke a little louder, because those are things a dragon does.
that night you did not dream.
she let out a twisting, twirling plume of smoke / and you breathed it in so deep you felt it settle in your toes, / a taste like burnt light, or the brightest kind of darkness. / when she drew back you mourned the moment’s passing.
you awoke then with tears on your cheeks / and ash in your mouth, and way down in your plump toes / you could feel the flame beginning. / three gifts: the fire, the ash, the crystal tears. / you fell asleep warmed by the coals / and cooled by the water.
the next morning was clear and cold, / and nobody knew you had a dragon’s gift / pooled in your feet, cushioning your every step. / but you knew, and you walked a little taller, / spoke a little louder, because those are things a dragon does.
that night you did not dream.
Laura Cook is a twenty-year-old engineering major. When she’s not wrestling with problem sets, she can be found reading fiction of all kinds, writing poetry and prose, and volunteering at the local animal shelter. Her work is usually narrative in style, favoring plot over the abstract. She has never been published, but she won a gold medal in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards in 2012.