Have I a Heart?

Have I a heart for heroes in their otherness;
those lonely dragon sentinels that perch above
the towns of common men in watchful solitude,
in whom there burns a melancholic coal
to waft seductive smoke of noble sacrifice
which rises from the incense spooned by circumstance
into their human, all too human, dragon’s hearts?

...no. But from the cobbled streets of such a town, I see
that mountain where the dragon seethes—then turn away
to face the mean demands of mortal life and learn
to smile all the same.