A Dragon’s Tale by Bruce Louis Dodson

                                                                 Oh settle your tails and lift up your flagons
                                                                 We’ll start a good fire and sing of great dragons
                                                                 Of Rusty knight’s armor and fights in the forest
                                                                 Adventures forgotten recalled by our chorus.

How few still remember the Knight of Trafulga
The time he attacked the green dragoness, Olga.
She lived south of Sherwood, a fine limestone house
She liked to play bridge and she kept a pet mouse.

One day it awoke from a nap on her tummy
And squeaked in alarm, “Something out there sounds crummy!”
She lifted an eyelid. “I think you are right.
I smell metal and horse breath. It must be a knight.”

She went to the doorway, then into the yard
Where atop of his mount sat Trafulga’s Bernard.
Sir Bernard reigned up, and tilted his visor.
“I’ve come for your life,” he began to advise her.

“What ho!” Olga chortled, “Knowest not who I am?”
“You great clunking bucket. You cheap can of spam.”
Bernard was  enraged, and he lowered his lance
“Tally ho, you fat lizard. I’ll teach you to dance.”

The knight charged right at her, but six yards away
He encountered the flames that soon ruined his day
He sizzled and snapped inside hot armor metal
Burned quite to a crisp in his very own kettle.

She spared Bernard’s mare, whose name was, Black Nell
They played bridge and gin rummy, and poker as well
The mouse liked a game of high stakes now and then
He wagered his cheese, and they both let him win.

They passed their time leisurely, happily hoisting
With warm fires and card games and marshmallow roasting.

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Bruce Louis Dodson is an American expat living in Borlänge, Sweden. His recent work has appeared in: Foreign & Far Away Anthology, Trip of a Lifetime Anthology, Pirene’s Fountain, Tic Toc Anthology, Litro Magazine, Popshot Quarterly, Glassworks, Cordite Poetry Review, Buffalo Almanac, So It Goes, Maintenant, Permafrost, Madness Muse, Whitefish Review, Pure Slush, and Dash Literary Journal.