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2006 Sigma Tau Delta Poetry Conference

Honorable Mention Jessica Smith   "Lamentation"

In a time before time itself knew
It existed
So beauty had no fear of
Ever failing,
A serpent was woven
From threads of the breeze
And yarn of the earth.

Each breath a fiery eruption
Of life;
Scales glinting with quintessence
Of power,
It coiled through the stars
And every heart that was
And every birth that would be.

Slithering movements alternating light
And dark;
The image of wonders; a streaming specter
Of colors,
Weaving itself through
Shadows and fires
So that they were one.

Aiai! Awaken once more that serpent
Within me.
The fluid and rapids of being
That verve.
Return to primordial horizons
With the icon of ultimate creation
In its greatest chaos and control.

It was indeed the cosmos'
Greatest fault
To receive the greedy birth
Of time
For, although such a self would outlive
The world and all the makers
Its glimmer- perfection- was but a moment.

Aiai! I pray thee, recover the
Dusty wingspan,
Discover the phantom of the
Scale legions
To fight off nipping vipers of vice, assemble
The purity within and without
And revive the worm to antiquian luster.

Gather the fragments of past
Broken greatness
To conquer the writhes of this
Passion dispersed.
Heal this serpentine scar, spewing maggots
For carrion of life's zealous beat;
Salvage the coiling grandeur of creation.

Aiai!
Is the beast forever shattered?
Aiai!
The mirrored scales now useless dust?
Aiai!
The fiery breath extinguished in time?

Wretched
It was, to break such a thing.
Doomed
Are those who try not to redeem.
Meaningless
Are those who see not the glint.

Aiai!
Lament for the absence of our
Spiritual kin,
Life's brethren:
The Dragon.