Poem: "Wings, Dragons"

This is the linkback perk poem from the July 3, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl, originally hosted by DW user Dialecticdreamer.  It was inspired by a prompt from Starbit.  It fills the "flashy entrances" square in my 5-1-18 General card for the Pro Wrestling Bingo fest.  This poem belongs to the series "A Conflagration of Dragons."




There are wings,
and then there are dragons.

Perhaps it is a little easier
for the winged peoples
not to envy the dragons --

the Imran have
their brilliant, skin wings;

the Madhusudana have
their narrow, feathered wings;

and even the Shu have
their soft, furred gliding membranes --

so the sky is theirs, too.

Perhaps it is a little harder
for the landbound peoples
to look up and be left behind --

the Eofor of the mountains
with their muscular tails
and their heavy horns;

the Hachi of the swamps
with their short, fawnlike tails
and their sturdy, protective scales;

the Beneberak of the grasslands
with their diamond scales
and their curling horns --

each with their own gifts,
but none of them able to fly.

(They do not mention
the hybrids beginning
to be born with features
of more than one race.)

Above them all soar the dragons
on wings of red, blue, bronze, or black,
their flashy entrance shattering history like
colored stones through glass windows.

They are so much bigger than everyone
that even the winged peoples may wish for
their strength and their endurance, while
the landbound wish for any flight at all.

But there is one thing that all of
the Six Races envy the dragons:

their sheer invincibility.