6.5 Dragon

by Eric Chaet

A man’s fighting
a dragon
could be a woman
fighting the dragon
I don’t dare move in
too close, to see:
darting & feinting
roaring lunging
flames dodging
could be a boy or girl
fighting the dragon
like in some child’s
fairy tale.

But it’s no fairy tale
I’m sure of that.
And it’s a human being
I’m sure of that, too—
no other great ape
wears clothes.

Doesn’t seem
like a fair contest:

That dragon’s
bigger than Albuquerque!
bigger than Athens!
bigger than Singapore!
bigger than Dubai!
bigger than Ecuador!
bigger than Senegal!
as tho it’s made up of,
I don’t know,
tens of thousands
hundreds of thousands
of persons
under a huge costume
like Chinese New Year
when fire-crackers go off.

A person
against a dragon
full of other persons:

And the dragon has
trillions of dollars, too
hundreds of trillions
dollars, yen, euros, yuan
rubles, rupies, pounds
stocks, bonds, derivatives
titles to real estate
that dragon is loaded!
blackmail revenues, too
from London, Vegas, D.C.
Beijing, Delhi, Tokyo
Seoul, Sydney, Sao Paulo
the Big Apple—
& the person has zero
just the clothes
the person is wearing
oh, maybe a few bucks
in the leaking pockets
or a credit card
with access to more than
he or she dares use
or he or she will be trapped
once & for all
enthralled, enslaved
helot, peasant,
terminal rat-racer—
so you can tell it’s a person
not some other great ape.

Furthermore, the dragon
has hundreds of thousands
of dim-wits
(some may yet brighten up
some have probably been
in the dark too long)
serving as arms, legs,
gastro-intestinal tract, etc.
maybe a few dozen shrewd
but narrow, shallow people
with generations
of experience
manipulating outcomes
serving as brains—
I mean experience
consolidating industries
banking & shipping
trading drugs & slaves
sugar & oil
issuing & redeeming
arranging wars
& elections & subsidies
minting coins
printing paper money
organizing
countries & markets
revolutions & restorations
international flows
commodities & credits
favors & punishments
public relations, mind control—
excuse me, I meant:
entertainment & journalism
education & advertising.

Poor little person
just seems so worn out
mainly just dodging
& trying to block
big dragon’s awkward
but so overwhelming
you can see the person
just wants to give up
& cry like a baby.

Suddenly, I know
what the person is thinking:
is there some way
I can become
part of the dragon?
Can I make myself agreeable
to the dragon?
Some service I can offer?
But would I be betraying
all the other people?

(The other people
haven’t always been
so good to me!)

Maybe, I can back away
& dragon will forget me
& I can live on whatever
dragon doesn’t incinerate
or swallow?
But isn’t that cowardice?
Isn’t that betraying
the other people—
who haven’t always
been so good to me!—
or even myself?

Wait a minute!
Did the dragon stumble?!
Could it be
there’s internal squabbling
inside that dragon’s head?
Not cells all perfectly
aligned for plunder?
Could it be
that dragon’s arms, legs,
& gastro-intestinal tract
aren’t perfectly
coordinated, totally
invincible?

You’ve got to admit:
that dragon has still
not eliminated that person!
Maybe the person
is getting a second wind!
Maybe the person’s battle
has attracted the attention
& support of other persons?

(I don’t mean a majority
or even as many as
inhabit one dragon leg.)

Maybe the person
has developed skills
& strengths
that make him or her
more competitive
even with the dragon,
that apply
even once the person
has slain the dragon
or left the dragon behind
to die
of purposelessness
& exhaustion!

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Picture:
Ming Dynasty
artist unknown
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