Dragon Lore (Poetry)
31st May 2007
The dragon in the basement flat
was seldom seen — a blessing that
the other tenants prayed would last
as anxiously they tiptoed past
recoiling, trying not to sniff
the sulphurous, persistant whiff
that emanated from her lair
and hung its foulness on the air.
The stories grew — as stories do
until there was no body who
wasn’t apprehensive when
her rheumy eye caught sight of them
a-creeping down the dingy hall
and that so-dreaded wheezy call
stopped them, quaking in their tracks —
demanded they at once come back
to stand before her baleful glare
and answer riddles then and there —
those odd conundrums dragons use
when monthly rents are overdue...
By all accounts it’s hard to say
what came of those who couldn’t pay
but now and then, as some had feared
a tenant upped and disappeared
and in the window went a sign —
ROOM TO LET — then (underlined)
NO KIDS - NO MOBILE PHONES -NO PETS
NO SMOKING POT - NO INTERNET
NO SWORDS - NO DAGGERS, KNIVES OR GUNS
NO PICKY VEGETARIANS
NO QUESTING KNIGHTS - NO HEROES BOLD
NO THIEVING PIRATES FOND OF GOLD
NO TAX INSPECTORS - ANCIENT GREEKS
NO WIZARDS - NO RELIGIOUS FREAKS
( YOUNG VIRGINS VETTED — FORM A QUEUE
OUTSIDE OF NUMBER 22)
Thus tenants came and tenants left —
no one questioned, no one checked
gave excuses or explained
why some were never seen again.
The dragon in her urban nest
recycled bones, consumed the rest —
no hint remained — all clues erased —
forensics wouldn’t find a trace
as dragons (an undying breed)
have centuries to brood and read
biographies of wicked men
and study how to live like them.
was seldom seen — a blessing that
the other tenants prayed would last
as anxiously they tiptoed past
recoiling, trying not to sniff
the sulphurous, persistant whiff
that emanated from her lair
and hung its foulness on the air.
The stories grew — as stories do
until there was no body who
wasn’t apprehensive when
her rheumy eye caught sight of them
a-creeping down the dingy hall
and that so-dreaded wheezy call
stopped them, quaking in their tracks —
demanded they at once come back
to stand before her baleful glare
and answer riddles then and there —
those odd conundrums dragons use
when monthly rents are overdue...
By all accounts it’s hard to say
what came of those who couldn’t pay
but now and then, as some had feared
a tenant upped and disappeared
and in the window went a sign —
ROOM TO LET — then (underlined)
NO KIDS - NO MOBILE PHONES -NO PETS
NO SMOKING POT - NO INTERNET
NO SWORDS - NO DAGGERS, KNIVES OR GUNS
NO PICKY VEGETARIANS
NO QUESTING KNIGHTS - NO HEROES BOLD
NO THIEVING PIRATES FOND OF GOLD
NO TAX INSPECTORS - ANCIENT GREEKS
NO WIZARDS - NO RELIGIOUS FREAKS
( YOUNG VIRGINS VETTED — FORM A QUEUE
OUTSIDE OF NUMBER 22)
Thus tenants came and tenants left —
no one questioned, no one checked
gave excuses or explained
why some were never seen again.
The dragon in her urban nest
recycled bones, consumed the rest —
no hint remained — all clues erased —
forensics wouldn’t find a trace
as dragons (an undying breed)
have centuries to brood and read
biographies of wicked men
and study how to live like them.