Where Dragons Come To Hide

Then I knew what lay over the distant horizon For the sun dared me to follow it to the other side Where light took shape in a proud day’s kaizen, Morning accompanied yesterday’s journey inside The frolic of the night where dragons had come to hide. I awakened to the sound of recorders and flutes Neatly clad pedestrians hustling to the cities’ centers, Skyscrapers built like working men in sturdy boots -- I watched from subway steps one hurriedly enters While my country’s powerful slept like mad dissenters. My peace was suddenly shattered by earth's shaking One hapless hemisphere grating against a silent other Trying to foresee the future, theirs for the taking, Because passivity and paucity of concern smother Devaluing the halcyon days of my father and mother. The sun bade me follow upward to the eastern rim To view objectively another point of view in time And space, that I shall experience in lessons less grim, Awakening my heart chilled, then fluttered in mime Seems humankind, en toto, has a rugged uphill to climb. EIGHTH PLACE WINNER written February 3, 2022 especially for "Quintain (English)" Poetry Contest sponsored by Emile Pinet #76 on Poetry Soup's Best Poems List February 25, 2022