March 01, 2019

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


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Tags: amelinpoetry

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