***
I wandered
the Realm of Green Dragons
for seasons,
hunted
skins
for tents
and sandals,
took a few emerald scales
from a sleeping dragon’s swampy cave
to grind up
and wax onto some wood
to make myself new matches,
since the ones in the pocket
of my dragon black cloak
had nearly run out
(though in the end
I liked the ones that’d burned blue
more than these new
matches with their soft silver hue),
and I slept
through some flooding monsoons
in a wooden canoe
and I hiked up the mountains
to the snowline,
shielding my eyes from the blinding ice reflection
with my demon wing bag,
and I made snowshoes
from snowbares
and dug up
frosted flower hairs
for dinners,
and I walked on a frozen lake
to hear it groan beneath my feet
and I spent the night’s life
in the same realm where it lived
without doing much magic,
I just wasn’t feeling it
I think I got burnt out on it,
the Witch Kook
sick of witching it up,
but the whole way I wandered
I thought about
making a giant summoning circle,
making runes in the dirt or ice or snow or stone
out of paint
or something with long roots to float in place on the lake’s surface
and I’d leave a giant rope behind me
to connect all of them
then once I completed the circle
I’d tie the rope in a knot
to activate the spell–
some nights I laid awake,
rocking in a canoe on water, or
murmuring promises with the rain drops on the tent, or
chilling on the snowy slopes,
and thought of what I could do
with a spell that large.
I could
set everything on fire.
I could
plunge the ring into another realm,
crash this whole forest
onto some city.
I could
change everything’s color
to something else.
I could
make everything die.
I could
make the rocks come alive.
Make the water float,
even the water inside the trees.
I could
turn the air
to bread flakes
so everything’d suffocate.
Then I got wondering,
why would changing anything
make everything worse?
Couldn’t I change something
to make anything better?
So I arrived at the boring conclusion:
with a giant summoning ring,
the only good I could do
would be to
bring back some dragon’s memories
or just
get rid of me.
Jordyn Saelor 