My youthful fingers
slip into the soft soil
of earth’s thick and damp hair,
trembling with the
quaking ground
that arrested my
dreaming slumber.

The warm grass
barrages my night gown
with chilling dew
projectiles
as my eyes press
the fading moonlit form.

Her scales shimmer
reflecting the stars
with a silvery purple hue
between the ricocheting breaths
that reverberate along the hillside.

Fear and awe sweat from my body
as she shakes the frail palms of death
from their tightening hold around
her muscular neck
as would a horse might a gnat.

Barbels plow veins
along the ground until
I feel her heated breath
encircling the insignificant
strands of my straw brown hair.

Smirking eyes lock into mine
as she lifts to her imposing height.
She rakes the ground while the
desperate heart thumps
slow to an instant.

The heavens contort
and shred themselves apart
as her soul presses in on my own.
The sands grow age as mountains
and ocean waves no longer
see me drift  by
in the blink of the eye
as I spread my soft
leathery wings
and fly.