Fire-Breathing Beast

for Oleg Chukhontsev

Steely-scaled, winged,
Sickle-clawed, horned…
        Gavriil Derzhavin

Fire-breathing beast, fumes wreathing your figure,
with sickle-claws clenched your playful nature
     is clear: an open book
read by all who’ve caught the whiff of ruin as they’re
clamped in those glittering talons,
     the skin on their backs