Dragon Dancing on Cadillac Mountain
They say the Moon's at apogee tonight,
but you wouldn't know it up here
on Cadillac Mountain
after the last tourists have gone home.
The only lights here
are Jupiter and the stars
and that big, bright, shining Moon
that makes the boulders just glow.
The whole landscape is illuminated,
and with a cold, cold, howling wind,
it all just seems so otherworldly.
But the mountain is like this every month
and it's been this way for thousands of years,
so maybe it's not so otherworldly after all;
Maybe it's what we're used to that's otherworldly:
the cities
where the Moon and stars are drowned in floodlights
and the night sky is red.
.
But here on this gusty, moonlit mountain,
as if by some ancient spell,
we are transformed
into our true forms,
two dragons wheeling about
as the wind blows hard on our faces
and around our wings;
And I can feel the lift -
we are flying,
even if our feet don't leave the ground.
And I can almost see your wings outstretched,
and your three-tipped tail flowing behind you,
and your horns and your faceplates,
and the spines running down your back,
and it all just feels so natural...
Frai, ever the cat,
is waiting for us in the warmth of the car;
she says it looked like we were doing the Eagle Dance.
.
And so we return back down the mountain,
but the spell persists,
along with that grin on your face,
long into the night.
And back at the cabin,
as we drink hot cider with cinnamon sticks,
I wonder if true magic is made
not by reciting incantations,
but by letting go and just starting to feel
the moonlight and the wind
upon your face.
(©2011 Cassander)
Also posted to otherkin