The world within and the world without, the storms of heaven fell one day. The skies turned bloody and the sun never rose. If the heaven had a memory, it would collapse into itself describing the eyes it once held. Long have I traveled and longer still I have to go before I’m awaken by the thunder of the last day. Long have I searched and longer still I have to search for something greater than the passing of the time. Long have I seen and longer still I have to see the rise and fall of men and beasts. And long have I told and longer still I have to tell the story of the day I saw a dragon.
Her wings were red and shaped like arrows spreading as far as eyes could see. Such was the magnificence of her glide that it echoed floods of blood and roses to the ends of the world and yet as I stood at the edge, brought forward the length of my arm, I felt her touch. Her eyes were brown and I saw the sun in them and yet as I watched, my writing disappeared in their reflection. Her lips were full and bound. They had oceans over oceans crumbling within them and yet as I kissed them, I forgot the taste of water. She knew all the stars that had ever been and could name all the legends of the past. She had been a giant in one lifetime and a storm in another.
She was the measure of time the world set its clocks to and the lines of old the world revolved around. She was the drop of good within evil - a glance that could make the devil repent. She was powerful and unforgettable. Like the first day and the last, she was impossible to repeat.
The first time I saw her, I was taken aback. A dragon in the midst of greater city was a sight to fathom. She was from the oceans, she told me, and she was from where the winds knew no boarders. She had learned to fly there. Gliding over the endless horizons, her heart had found a friend in them. I swirled through the skies and then touched the water, she told me, I whispered to the winds and then kissed life into them. And I saw the mountains piercing through the face of the second world and then I watched as they knelt. They were tall and so was I, they were unmoved and so was I, but they were silent and so was I. Even the mightiest must fall, she told me, and it was time for her to go.
I looked for her. Have you seen a dragon, I asked, and no one answered. The watchful eyes of the cursed city had left no tracks of her. The very skies that once turned red with the span of her mighty wings now stood empty.
The roar of the oceans that once infused fear into the heart of the night now fell silent. And the wind and the storms that once guarded the shorelines of the ends of the world now collapsed into themselves. The dragon has been tamed, I was told, the city has absorbed her.
The dragon has evaporated with the last of her songs and the world may never see her in its lifetime again. She is here, I told them, she is here and she will return. She is lost and I will find her. She is hurt and I will love her. She is broken and I will mend her. And she is alone and I will hold her hand. I will look for her in this godforsaken city and I will take her away far into a world where there are no walls to contain her freedom, where there are no ropes to dull her roar, where there are no domes to stop her from rising, and where there are no laws to keep her wrath. The day was old as all days had become until I saw her. I am not what I used to be, she told me, in the race cascaded upon itself, the dragon has faded. The days are long past when I was free and magnificent.
My wings have been cut off and I never learned to crawl. The weight on my shoulder drowns me and I never knew any shores. And the thunder rocks my hut down and I have no bricks to live under. For centuries there have been no miracles, I told her, and she is the last of them.
Someone made to fly will not crawl among the flesh of men and beasts. Someone made to rain will not drown in it. And someone made to wrap the storms around her waist will not get lost in them. You were never meant to be one of many. You are water and they, mere grains of sand. Do you not know that sand and water do not mix? I will take you to the ocean and you can finally taste it, I will take you to the mountains and you can finally breath, and I will take you to the farthest corner of the world and the stars that guide us will learn your name.
You will rise and the magnificence of your glide will once again paint the skies red. You will rise and the news of your arrival will once again make the oceans crumble. You will rise and the winds and the storms will once again sing in your grace.
So what if the lines of old and grey consume you? You will be forever young in the pages of my poetry. So what if you’ve been hurt? A scar is where the light enters you. So what if your heart has been spent? A heart is a metal seed and a single one can grow.
BY MUHAMMAD SHAHZAIB TAHIR AWAN (PAKISTAN) | CLASS OF 2022
