Two dragons took their waking slow
lazily slithering into sunshine, draping
themselves on rust colored mesas
yawning, they waited, not knowing
how much the world had changed
and not changed during their big dirt nap.
Twelve minutes into sunbathing
drones picking up heat imaging alerts
passed location to NASA, who beamed
all available satellite cameras directly
onto coordinates. Jets scrambled
dropping Kevlar nets; two stunned dragons
were swiftly carried deep into the desert.
Thirty minutes awake, the dragons
found themselves peering through small holes
at row of silk-suited Halliburton Executives;
and when I say Halliburton, read military cronyism.
In quick time dragons and high functioning sharks
established communications, offers of limited
mutual benefit, and more offers benefiting
only the execs; then the dragons were released.
Two prolonged streams of flame swung in a birthday
candle extinguishing manner and all humans
were reduced, by way of voided contract,
to smoldering charcoal.
The dragons dined on least burnt, picked
their teeth with discarded bayonets and returned
to their caves sealing them from within.
Now the upper Echelon
may not be believers of science or magic,
but they need to realize
that a creature who dines on Princesses
has an appetite for the 1%.

————

Michelle Hartman is a multiple Pushcart Nominee. Her new poetry book, Irony and Irrelevance, was just released from Lamar University Press in early 2015 and is available on Amazon. Her first book, Disenchanted and Disgruntled was published by Lamar University in 2013. She is the editor for the online journal Red River Review and holds a BS in Political Science-Pre Law and a Certificate in Paralegal studies.