Poem: "Silken Dreams"
This was the linkback perk for the April 7, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl, originally hosted by DW user Dialecticdreamer. It came out of the January 6, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from ellenmillion and wyld_dandelyon. It belongs to the Dragonsilk series, which you can find via the Serial Poetry page.
This poem has 18 of 25 verses posted. So far linkers include DW user Dialecticdreamer and her husband, DW user Lynnoconnacht, DW user Librarygeek, thnidu, and janetmiles.
Silken Dreams
The year after the soldiers
save their farm from raiders,
Mirala and her husband Yonal
go to see the dragon.
Mirala wrings her hands
as she explains why
they want to host a soldier,
whenever one hatches out.
Yonal talks about their love
for the barn full of horses
and the orchard saved
from the raiders' torches.
The dragon hums at them
and begins spinning
a piece of dragonsilk
big enough to cover a bed.
Mirala and Yonal know
that this will be the test
of their devotion
and their patience.
Yonal chooses the colors
from the rag-bag and
carefully cuts out a set
of triangles in different sizes.
There are some of scraps
leftover from other projects,
some from Yonal's old shirts
or Mirala's worn-out dresses.
Here is one from a courting shirt
threaded with bright silver;
here is a piece from the dress
at the Dance of Spring Dawning.
Mirala pieces the quilt together,
vivid triangles on white silk,
and embroiders around them
in circles and triangles and lines.
It takes a long time to finish
the quilt, but that is as it should be:
healing a soldier's mind
is slow work too.
When the quilt is done,
Mirala and Yonal go back
and present their work
to the dragon.
She lifts her great golden head
to inspect their offering,
peers at the workmanship,
then gives a solemn nod.
As Mirala and Yonal withdraw,
she noses at the bundled soldiers
sleeping inside their cocoons,
some of whom are starting to stir.
They do not know who
they will be taking home
until the day he hatches
out of his dragonsilk.
Mirala is amazed to learn
from the attendants
that this soldier has been
sleeping over a century.
Yonal watches the attendants
dress him in comfortable clothes
they have brought for him,
smoothing his silver hair.
They call him by his name,
but Carilen hardly stirs when
he hears their voices, his gray eyes
dark and hazy with confusion.
Mirala and Yonal take him home
in the wagon drawn by calm horses,
driving up the lane that goes
through the heart of the orchard.
* * *
Notes:
The spiral quilt in this poem was inspired by this project.
Quilting is a form of visual storytelling. It takes quite a while for someone to make a quilt, but the results can be memorable.
PTSD affects many veterans. Understand how to cope with PTSD yourself or in the family.
[To be continued ...]