Sestina: Dragon by Vince Gotera

Sestina: Dragon
Vince Gotera

What could be more optimal for a dragon
sestina than using the word “dragon”
as an end word? All six end words could be “dragon,”
in fact. That way there wouldn’t be any drag in
having to sort out when you’d need “dragon”
again. ’Cause every time you’d put in “dragon.”

Yup, dragon.
Then dragon.
Then, uh-huh . . . dragon
again. Thinking of Beowulf and Grendel and their dragon,
maybe pull in a kenning or two? For example, a dragon
kenning might be “fire worm.” But that’s a familiar dragon

image already, from ancient days. A new kenning for dragon
could be “reptile flame-thrower.” Though such a dragonage
just might be too moderne. Violate the traditional dragon
mystique. You could allude to the constellation Draco
by kenning “multi-double-eye snake” because Mu Draconis
is a binary star in that system, along with Nu Draconis

and Omicron Draconis and several others. Some Draco
stars, in fact, are actually triplets. Because of the Draconids
meteor shower every October, “stone-rain dragon”
could be another kenning. Is it too draconian,
do you think, to insist on repeating “dragon”?
Are you, dear reader, getting tired of hearing “dragon”

so often? Would it stretch credulity to hear “dragon”
right now? For what it’s worth, for me not yet a drag, and
we’re still having fun, aren’t we? We’re not dragging
our feet yet, thinking, “Oh jeez, here comes ‘dragon’
again.” In reference to military history, “dragoon”
could give us a little break from the word “dragon.”

Another variation might be the name Count Dracula
taken on by Vlad the Impaler when he became a Dragon,
or more precisely was invested in The Order of the Dragon.
The kenning then might be “blood-gulper son-of-a-dragon,”
the literal technical meaning of the word “Dracula,”
not the blood part but the bit about sons and dragons.

Dragon sestina about done. Should we avoid dragging
on by saying “dragon dragon dragon” now or does “dragon”
need sestina’d with respect? Nah. Dragon dragon dragon.