Let sleeping dragons lie

Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)



In ancient forts
Sleeping dragons lie in wait,
For unwary callers.

Archaeologists
Digging deep in ancient forts;
Stumble upon death.

A sleeping dragon
Awakened by the digging,
Rears up to attack.

Men and women scream
Horror come to life again,
After sleeping aeons.

Terrified they flee
Hoping to outrun the death,
Baring down on them.

A dragon breaths fire
Charring the fleeing people,
Into human toast.

Nine people now dead
Ten others still fleeing death,
Just metres behind.

Trespassers fleeing
As fiery death whooshes out,
Killing one by one.

Twelve dead then fifteen
The last few on the brink now,
Of lethal collapse.

A woken dragon
Chases down trespassers,
Till slowly turning:

Beneath ancient forts
Sleeping dragons lie again;
Guarding ancient lore.

THE END
© Copyright 2021, Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on May 07, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
8

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXX XAB CDX XEA XBX XXX XBX DXC XXX CAD AEX XXX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 793
Words 132
Stanzas 12
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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