LAST DAY of the DRAGONS

"Dragons live  in the mountains.  We cannot see them, but they are there.." -R. Raphe

It came without warning. They bellowed into the mist.  Their calls   felling the trees as they lumbered forth.

She heard them. Heard the dragons in the forest.

The dragons   wallowed in the mold and mud.

October was ending.

The dragons cried 

Clouds gathered on the mountains with shawls  of dust.

The waning sun burned hot in those dark days

And the dragons  roared to the fog.

The dragons breathed froth and howled at the dimming light.

And the mountains shuddered on the last day, when the rain came and went and went and came.

For there were many of them. Ancient  ones

They waited in the rain, which came and went and went and came…..

 It had been a long time since they needed rest.

To put out their fire. With the rain so cold and biting.

The dragons were weary. The fog  let them into the hills. 

Into the mountains. Into their lairs for winter.

On that last day of October. That last day of the dragons.

 Photographs 2022