The History of Dragons

For two hundred years the mountains stood untouched
Empty
Cold and dead like the fields in wintertime
For two hundred years the earth continued to shake
Crash
Move and shatter under the weight of the sea
After two hundred years it ceased
Silent
The world was not a sound, not a breath

But deep in the dark in the shadows the rock
Deep in the places even fire never knew
There in that deep in the shelter from the sea
Came the first
Came the blue
Came the dragon of the waters
Long was his tail as the islands of the coast
Sharp was his teeth like the swords in their sheaths
Hungry was his stomach like the wolves of the snow
And up he swam from the bottom
Circling circling
Round
And the fish fled
Creatures hid
And the oceans trembled

The sea gave up her children
One by one
The blue
From the deep
They found their way to the surface and they looked into the sky
At the stars
And the sun
The bright of the sky and the land
They left their watery shadows
And climbed upon the rocks
Deep cut in slimy skin
Burning wounds from pointed cliffs
But they climbed
Higher
To the heavens
Up
And up
And up and up and up
Till they stood on the great mountains themselves
And they touched the face of the sun
And they felt the fire
Deep inside their empty bellies
Deeper than the shadows once their home
And they took the fire
Stole
Claimed it as their own

And the sea, she screamed
Her children were gone
Lost to the sun and the sky and the land
And the sea, she screamed
But her children were gone