dream

previous part here

***

(trigger warning: this poem discusses child abuse)

my dream

was to run away

and ask a sea god

to adopt me.

Or maybe a dragon.

Maybe, I’d have to trick a demon

to trip through a portal

in order to prove myself worthy

of the land god’s love,

or maybe

I’d have to raise

a baby fire dragon

for the volcano queen

to make me her child.

But every dawn

when I stumbled home

and slept in the corner

until my mother began

rattling around in her potions shack

in the front of the house,

no

mystical being

ever showed up

to take me to my

real home,

far away

from the reek of pots

and potions

and the endlessly itching

stinging

rashes

all over my arms.

And back.

And belly.

And thighs.

And neck.

But I promised I wouldn’t think about that,

so I instead thought

about my new dragon mother,

like maybe

that would summon her.

She’d have beautiful blue scales,

and curly claws that clacked on the ground

and two swishing tails

that knocked the houses down,

and a long neck

covered in spikes

and a huge mouth

that could eat a person in two bites,

one half

then the other,

and she’d

scorch off

the thatch roof

of this hut

and her big blue eye

would look at me

and she’d say

telepathically,

Ola,

I have just the place for you,

would you like to come home with me?

***

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