The Dragon (occidental)

The Dragon (occidental)

Behind the thick blue-green light
The white blue-green light,
In front of the window
Build in the seams,
sown up tight in the corners
On the red-yellow gold of glass stained into the window
Where the sun peered in coldly
Was the image of the devil,
The devil as a dragon
But that dragon as a star
And that star in the sky
But a sky not just dark night
Crowned and crowded
With blank starlight
But a sky of heaven.
The star all heavy and falling down the
Lead paint stain of red down the front
Of the cracked window
A star failing in orbit
Ruined but not exploded and wasted from age
But simply faded…
All away.

I took the fire from heaven
Back from where it had departed.
I took the fire from heaven
And carried down
Down the mountain side
Like Moses
But more Maimonides,
It was a heavy load.

In the last suicidal moments in the desperate day
I moved with the monster-fiends
Too long,
I danced with them too long
With the sharp knife legs
And growling bony bony skin.
I stayed too long,
And singed my flesh
And scorched my limbs
And broke my bones
And bruised my hands.

I carried down the fire
Back out of heaven
And illuminated
The sky.