Bleeding Dragon

By Amanda Palermo

The bleeding dragon sleeps

And lives in a tired facade;

Leaves floating gently

Outside the cave of the beast

As it sits there and waits,

Ready to embrace the prospect of death.

It doesn’t have any strong feelings about death,

Its embrace means nothing as the dragon sleeps—

And the Grim Reaper waits.

Grim can’t help but consider the dragon’s facade—

His gaze lying on that of the beast,

And his bony fingers touching her scales gently.

The life fades from her body gently,

Like she is flying into the arms of death—

A graceful yet unwieldy beast,

But right now, she sleeps.

It crumbles, the facade—

And Grim sits and waits.

She, as well, waits,

Her scaly eyes fluttering gently.

Her body can no longer keep up the facade,

And her lungs cease to heave—the sign of death.

One may assume she sleeps,

But she is gone, a lost beast.

Many thought of her as just a beast,

But for judgment, everyone waits—

And in this scenario, God sleeps.

The tendrils of Heaven flow gently,

Being clear signs of the dragon’s death,

Taking her soul away from the corporeal facade.

Yet, her life nor her body was a facade,

And she was more than just a beast.

She loved and lost and now sits here, facing death,

She sits and patiently waits,

Waiting for the tendrils of Heaven to take her up gently.

Her soul is alive, but her corpse sleeps.

In life and in death, she lived a facade,

On the Earthly realm, the beast sleeps,

But here, now, her corpse lies and waits, while her spirit floats up above—gently.

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Biography

My name’s Amanda, I’m a sophomore. In school, you can find me hanging out with friends or helping out with club activities. When I’m not at school, I’m usually writing, drawing, or spending time with my momma.

What message do you hope to convey through your piece?

I hope to convey that quiet kids—or kids that are rough on the outside are good people on the inside, and that you shouldn’t dismiss them or leave them behind. Everyone’s got a place in this life—it doesn’t determine how they are on the inside all the time. Stereotypes aren’t always true.

How do you resonate with your piece? Why is it personal to you?

I resonate with this piece because I, myself, and some of my friends (in and out of school) have had to deal with this. We’re treated as outsiders and bullied until something bad happens.