WHAT YOU’VE BECOME

WHAT YOU’VE BECOME, by Gretchen Tessmer

 

if wishes were horses?

more like rooks and herons

kings and beggar men—

made weak by yellow-haze sloth

sipped at the pond

of mud-slick weeds and greed

all fools in the face of temptation

 

I remember when you were brave

and knew something of

careful deliberation

 

as Daughter of Chilled Starlight, I will

play to your vanity

and say you have not changed

despite the white whiskers

 

and the whispers that blacken your name

 

a drink for my brother now

with a nod to his better days

when youth hopped out of

hollow graves, so hopeful

 

(this was years ago

when slaying dragons was commonplace)

 

and the world had not yet touched you

left scars and scales beneath your skin

which you tried to scrape off

first valiantly, then vainly

less and less vigorously until this sordid end

 

you became the dragon, dear

and you will be hunted by better men

 

_______________________________

Gretchen Tessmer is a writer/attorney based in the US/Canadian borderlands of Northern New York. Her fantasy poetry has appeared in such venues as Strange Horizons, Abyss & Apex, Star*Line and others.