I have never been at home here
so when the dragons rise
in rows behind the streetlights
I do nothing to show
I hadn’t been expecting them

they are less strange to me
smoke and iron and ice
than you are
sitting here beside me
as though nothing unusual
breathes all around us

—
Mary McCarthy grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, studied art and literature but spent most of her working life as a Registered Nurse. She has always been a writer. She has great hopes for the future despite the horrors reported endlessly in the daily news.