opalarts
SEEING BUT NOT BELIEVING DRAGONS
by Connie L. Peters

My friend and I hiked through the woods
to seek adventure there.
And then we tramped on rolling fields
to go we knew not where.

The wind blew cold, the day grew long,
and then we heard a sound.
We saw not man or animal
as we two looked around.

A shadow moved along the ground.
We looked up as the sky
filled with a huge shape over us
which drifted slowly by.

The wings were cumbersome but strong.
The creature inched along.
Till then we just encountered such
in story, poem or song.

We stared and did not speak until
some moments had elapsed.
Would we tell anyone this news,
or keep it under wraps?

We went to town to seek out some
who also might have seen.
But life went on as usual
with child, adult, and teen.

So we went home and shook our heads
believing not ourselves.
And chose to place this wonder on
back burners or some shelves.

But now and then go to that place
and gaze into the sky,
and wonder was it what we thought–
or not–that had caught our eye?

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: My creative process is like a jig-saw puzzle, putting together a bit of this and that. This poem is based on many hikes in the Pennsylvania woods and one of my favorite poems, as a child, “The Family Dragon,” found in The Children’s Hour, Best Loved Poems (1953).

IMAGE: “Dragon” by Opal Arts. Prints available at etsy.com.

my pic

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Connie L. Peters, a 30-year veteran writer, has published hundreds of devotions, short stories, and poems in many publications. She writes from southwest Colorado, where she and her husband host two adults with developmental disabilities. Her two children, now grown, live in Phoenix, Arizona.