The Book of Dragons: An Anthology by Jonathan Strahan

Author:Jonathan Strahan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-07-06T23:00:00+00:00

A Final Knight to Her Love and Foe

Amal El-Mohtar

Do I love you more when you roar or speak?

In flight, a shadow between me and the sky,

or bending your strength to nuzzle my palm, my cheek?

Do I love you more ridden or devouring? Unbidden or scouring

a countryside, an enemy fleet—do I love you more

in triumph or defeat?

Do I love you more by way of rivers, water-bearing, rain-making,

Heaven-born and sinuous as thrill?

or as fire-breathing, mountain-shaking,

livestock-thieving, treasure-taking

boundless hunger, clap of thunder,

hoarder of the world’s delights?

Do I love you when you fight

or when you yield your scales to my flesh,

this weak mesh of blood and bone to your fires and your stone,

your riddles, your greeting—

do I love you most in parting or in meeting,

solid or fleeting?

Do I love you by your head or by your tail,

your wings or your teeth,

your hard armor above or your softness beneath?

Do I love you by your breadth or by your depth,

your vast size,

or perched upon my shoulder in surprise? Your eyes

are everything, are all the world,

tail and mouth meeting, unmaking, repeating

feeding and fed, mountain and bed,

I love you as I love the vast, unnamable, untouchable, impossible

star-sewn sky and a severed thread

or a poem in its stead—

I love you living

And I love you dead.

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