YASHUB-GEB

YASHUB-GEB, by James Hutchings:

Old Yashub-Geb fell out of space
the last and greatest of his race.
Deep doleful furrows framed his face —
his stubborn strength was flagging.
His scales were brass that once were gold;
his baleful blood ran slow and cold.
An ancient story nearly told
was Yashub-Geb the dragon.

His eyes, once burning, doubled hells
were sunken, secret, sunless cells.
The wind around him as he fell
was bitter cold, and biting.
He fell to earth with none to see —
none save the stars that callously
looked on without a word as he
fell fierce and swift as lightning.

Stern scars now slashed once supple skin
the robes of a celestial king —
a faded, flawed and fallen thing —
all fraying now and tattered.
And waiting for his brittle bones
below him lay the jagged stones,
the teeth of Time — that hungry crone —
who grinds all mortal matter.

His weary wings that once had soared
from sun to sun would spread no more.
He drew a breath and gave a roar:
a plume of fire billowed.
Then deep within the cloud he leapt,
along his length the fire swept.
He curled himself as if he slept
upon a scarlet pillow.

No wolves would pick his carcass clean
nor maggots feast in rot obscene,
nor bards sing out that they had seen
his bones in idle bragging.
Too proud to lie in muck and mire
he gave himself to purest fire,
a shooting star the funeral pyre
for Yashub-Geb the dragon.
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James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name ‘Brad Pitt.’ He specializes in short fantasy fiction. His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, fiction365 and Enchanted Conversation among other markets. His ebook collection ‘The New Death and others’ is now available from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble and DriveThruFiction. He blogs regularly at http://www.apolitical.info/teleleli.