I am a girl

Who hid herself from the world

Taught to turn away from others

Whose hatred it held

To never let them see me scared

Afraid –

I wished to go far but

life bound my spirit there

when I longed to leave

Some told me I was being unrealistic

Living in a daydream

from wanting to

Explore and try new things,

adventures, they called it

my mind playing tricks on me

Only I could see–

Some came as ugly dragons

terrifying the night before me

Scaring me to the point

I didn’t know which way to go

They blew fire out

through their breath

Trailing my every step

If I tried to run ahead and hide

Their shadow and presence I felt

Eerily at my side

From dusk to dawn

If I dared to lie or disobey

They would surely hunt me down

So my nights were filled

With jagged dreams

That made daylight terrifying

Then upon one day

As I gathered myself outside to play

A dragon crept slowly behind me

Hidden from out of view

He whispered something in my ear

which I never knew

He spoke of beautiful times when he felt lost

Like me

He was estranged from other dragons

for they couldn’t understand why

words came off his lips differently

At times he stuttered,

yet he understood.

He gathered his courage

to invite every dragon he knew,

their hidden goodness glowing softly within them,

and slowly he began to speak—

to tell them how his eager words

would tumble from his mouth

too quickly,—

Until, all at once,

his words fell into meaning

for all the little dragons gathered there,

their once-concealed shadows stretched long;

they rose, sudden and unbound, unscared

bursting into life,

Their breath-

a searing fire,

at last released

from everything that held them back,

dragons wholly awake in the dark

In that moment, I knew what I must do

The path unrolled itself before me

Clear as moonlight

I would not heed a single word

From mouths that had no right

To name my fate

I gathered the courage to keep walking—

Something luminous drawing nearer

A beauty of a woman

stood out in the distance

A new beginning laid itself out on

a road before me

a journey I was always meant to take,

with or without those small dragons

gesturing toward the way