dragon tales

My son cried after I read a story about
the last living Dragon.
He cried as if his Hopes and Dreams had been
born a mythical age too late.
My heart chasmed wider with each sob,
cranking tighter on my blunder.

How could I not have known?
Whatever hardened my own memories?
My God, how can a mere mortal, with no means
fix it? To make it All better?

I had to lie!
Create a new mythical promise
of Hope and Dreams, and
make it a promise that he could
see and touch, every day.

I pulled my heart into my fingertips,
laid my hand on his silky childhood hair
and pointed across our backyard to
the side of our mountain,

“You see that vein of quartz over there?”
His Innocence nodded the head of his sobbing heart.
“I've been saving a secret to share with
only you. Saving until today.
Today, you need to know.
A secret like this is always on “A
Need To Know” basis.
That's not really quartz. It's
really Dragon Eggs,
waiting to hatch”

He groaned, “They're rocks, Dad. I have one
in my room.”
My knees gave out.
My Hopes were grasping for
a handhold of hope.
“Oh, no. They're Dragon Eggs all right.
All those old stories about Dragon Eggs were made-up. No one ever saw a dragon's egg. How could they ever get close enough? So, they made up a story so silly, everyone believed it. They claimed that Dragons believed they were no more special than chickens: laying their eggs in a nest that anyone and anything might possibly steal.

Oh, no.
Dragons knew they were special.
So, Dragons would fly to special mountains
and with a mighty blast of Dragon fire
as hot as their strength of Will
they would melt rock,
lay their crystal eggs and fly away,
letting the lava start the fire in her eggs.
Then the stone cools, protecting her
eggs with solid rock.
Nobody, or nothing could reach them.

So thought the Dragons.
They never dreamed that someday
Man would devise a desire
and means to strip part of a mountain
in exchange for a nicer car.

So you see, they are Dinosaur Eggs.
And someday-
They will hatch”

My son's sobbing had stopped,
long ago. I've been feeling
the expressions of his soul
struggling against some serious doubt.

“How do you know? Did the Tooth Fairy
tell you? “

“No. I just, know- that's all. It's
just like loving someone. No one tells you.
You just know”.

He falls against my chest,
trusting my heart will break
his fall. He looks up to me,
“That was a good story dad”.

I sigh, as mercy caresses me
with a lover's touch.
I roll my eyes, “It's not my story;
Dragons told it me”.

“When will they hatch dad?”

“Any day, I reckon.
Not even the Dragons knew that
much magic”.