Ayasofya
Only a building,
yet the heart aches;
only brick and mortar--
but also memory of years
like long liturgies,
a sense of loss
from memory sprung,
and wistful wishes
released with a sigh
that better things
might someday come.
The Dragons
The dragons are restless today;
they stir up hurricane and whirlwind,
turning forests to ash with a puff,
melting stone to flowing rivers.
It must be mating day;
they're letting out low trumpet-calls,
gathering together and quarrelling,
doing aerial combat
and other things.
Once a century they congregate
to multiply;
it's a fruitful congregation,
but with all these steel-clad knights
who rescue stupid damsels
(the kind that can't even figure out
that damsels should avoid dragons)
and in the process kill the fire-breathers--
they'll soon be extinct.
Then no one will know what it's like
to live in a world with dragons;
for a dragon is a sublimity
men and women cannot imagine.
