Poem: Something You Don't See Everyday

[shiori_makiba]

 Poem: Something You Don't See Everyday

by shiori_makiba / Ashley Weyer

Word Count: 32 lines

 

Inspired by the prompts of ysabetwordsmith (the livejournal list), chanter_greenie, and one of my own.

 

“Something You Don't See Everyday”

 

Smokey was an artist.

At first, this seems strange.

You expect dragons to be many things.

Artists weren't one of them.

 

But if given a moment to think about it,

it makes sense.

Dragons were sapient and sentient.

That generally meant an urge to express oneself

creatively in some sort of fashion.

 

Smokey did so with rock.

Sometimes carving it with her claws and

sometimes heating it with her fire-breath until molten

and forming shapes of volcanic glass.

 

Some of her pieces were small,

shockingly small considering how large she was.

Those talons were apparently capable of

quite delicate movements and fine control.

 

Others were large.

Including installation pieces

that were best seen from the air.

He felt very privileged that

she had shown those to him herself.

 

Maybe that was why he didn't take much convincing

to help her experiment with paint.

 

It was well-worth the effort to find stuff big enough for her.

She couldn't grip any paint brushes

but could use sponges perfectly well.

Her own talons and the tip of her tail

were also put to use in the business

of transferring paint from bucket to paper.

 

Now there was something you didn't see every day.

A dragon finger-painting.

Comments

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is adorable. I love the way you think through the challenges that a draconic artist would face, and find solutions for them. And the juxtaposition of "dragon" and "fingerpainting" is awesome. \o/

Re: Yay!

[technoshaman]

Talon-painting? :)

Re: Yay!

[shiori_makiba]

New word accepted. ;)

Re: Yay!

[shiori_makiba]

I'm glad you liked it (does her happy dance).

I just figured that if elephants and other big species can made art, then surely a dragon could.

And the image created by the words dragon artist and fingerpainting was too much to resist. Not that I tried very hard . . .

Re: Yay!

[thnidu]

Oh yes, I especially love that last line too. "Talon-painting" is fine, if it doesn't get misunderstood as like "nail-painting" or "face-painting", but please don't change that line!

•creatively in sort fashion.
> ?? Typo?

•Smokey did so with rocks.
Sometimes carving it with her claws and
sometimes heating it
> "It"? "Rocks" is plural. You could change "it" to "them", or change "rocks" to "rock" (referring to the material instead of individual pieces of it). For what it may be worth, my personal preference would be the latter.

•instillation
-> installation

Re: Yay!

[shiori_makiba]

Corrected. Thanks for the proof-reading check.

I like talon-painting as a word but I'm leaving the line. Don't think Smokey would be against face-painting exactly but she'd have to trust the person doing it. And they'd have to trust her.

Though if she forgets to wash the paint off of her talons, she might unintentionally paint her nails.

(adds to notes file)

[book-worm5.livejournal.com]

Hee, this is fun! I think I'd like to meet Smokey. :-)

[shiori_makiba]

I'm glad you like her. Smokey's pretty fun to write - very much a case of Our Dragons Are Different - and I hope to discover more of her stories and bring them to life.