Oct 2020
A DRAGON LOVES ME, MOTHER!
Wild eyed
she dares to tell her mother:
“A dragon loves me, mother!”
Her mother
more than a little perturbed
wails: “Why...why...oh
why. . .
do you always fall for
mythical creatures?”
“Well, at least
it’s not another ****** saint!”
“Oh you have had more
than your fair share
of saints!”
“Why can’t you go for a butcher, a baker
or even( God forbid )a candlestick maker?”
“What was the name
of your last saint?”
“George the something
or other...the jealous one?”
“Just wait ‘til he finds out
you’ve dumped him for a dragon!”
“A dragon...what will it be next
eh...eh?”
“An unicorn...a chimera?”
her mother moans on and on.
But wild eyed and dreaming
daughter’s not even listening
dreaming only
of her dragon
of his fiery breath
of his shiny scales
of the graceful curl of his tail.
“A dragon loves me...”
“A dragon loves me...”
she whispers
to the inner core
of her
self.
Wild eyed
she dares to tell her mother:
“A dragon loves me, mother!”
Her mother
more than a little perturbed
wails: “Why...why...oh
why. . .
do you always fall for
mythical creatures?”
“Well, at least
it’s not another ****** saint!”
“Oh you have had more
than your fair share
of saints!”
“Why can’t you go for a butcher, a baker
or even( God forbid )a candlestick maker?”
“What was the name
of your last saint?”
“George the something
or other...the jealous one?”
“Just wait ‘til he finds out
you’ve dumped him for a dragon!”
“A dragon...what will it be next
eh...eh?”
“An unicorn...a chimera?”
her mother moans on and on.
But wild eyed and dreaming
daughter’s not even listening
dreaming only
of her dragon
of his fiery breath
of his shiny scales
of the graceful curl of his tail.
“A dragon loves me...”
“A dragon loves me...”
she whispers
to the inner core
of her
self.
The title was encountered during our visit to the National Gallery in Sofia and we instantly fell in love with it. It is from Nicola Kezhuharovo( 1892-1971 )and the painting comes from 1922. It depicts a distraught mother prostrate before her daughter who stares mad-eyed and wildly into space whiles being enfolded and enraptured by the asaid fore-mentioned dragon of the title. On closer inspection the dragon turns out to be a handsome hunk of ectoplasm who has the feathered wings of an angel and the coiled serpent body of a lamiae...what John Keats could have done with this! It fairly set the imagination racing!
