**POEM: Slay that dragon, already

By Steve Isaak

(for Larissa Menns)


Fumbling with his sword,
earnest gentle words fall
from his boyish lips:
his hesitance renders
his armor ironic,
she thinks,
wishing he’d fell the beast.

Feigned patience curves her smile,
her cliff-attached chains
and flowing red robes
both willingly donned.

Her wrists yearn for his freeing fingers;
her lips, their first kiss,
as the leafy-plated beast
rages in the air, roaring down rocks, land
into brine,
fire in the dragon's inimitable stare.

“Yes, I understand,” she says, eying
her key-weighed necklace.


Copyright ©2002, 2012 Steve Isaak. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce in any form, including electronic, without the author’s express permission.

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This poem is included in my forthcoming 2012 poetry anthology, Almost there: poems. It's scheduled for autumn 2012 publication.

I posted this poem for The Mag, #100. (Photo and prompt provided by Tess Kinkaid - thanks, Tess! Sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor.)

Slay that dragon, already was also posted for Mostly Fiction Mondays, created by Stranger and Me, whose theme for this week is "The Crush".

Next Monday's (1/23/12) theme for Mostly Fiction Mondays (aka MFM) is "Parents".

If you have the time, talent and are so inclined, come play with us in these writing prompts! =)