Two Poems After William Blake, by F.F. Teague

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, by William Blake (England) ca. 1803–1805

Rise

She doesn’t know her strength, not yet. She’s young
and modest in her ways. Her face is mild.
The dragon likes to think that he has won;
his wings are stretched and taut, his eyes are wild,
his legs are spread in muscular display –
the thick tail thumps the floor in victory.
She doesn’t look. Her wide-eyed gaze is raised,
as are her hands, appealing. Please, help me!
Whatever answers fills her soul with light,
which radiates through dress and skin and hair.
She hasn’t lost. One day she’s going to rise,
no matter how much threat the fiend might bear.
For in this big reveal, his battle pose,
there is no might; only his weakness shows.

**
​
​Kills

It comes to her like something out of Hell:
Anxiety. This beast beside the bed.
Its mouths emit a never-ending yell;
its poison seeps inside her pounding head.

All truth is twisted. Gold is turned to grey,
to match its shade, the tarnished, tinged with blood,
her blood. It likes to drain her, every day.
All that she is, lies trampled in the mud.
​
There has to be a remedy for this,
a reason found, a diagnosis, pills,
the monster slain, a prince’s waking kiss,
before it strikes – the last attack that kills.

F.F. Teague

F.F. Teague (Fliss) is a copyeditor/copywriter by day and a poet/composer come nightfall. She lives in Pittville, a suburb of Cheltenham (UK). Her poetry features regularly in the Spotlight of The HyperTexts; she has also been published by a number of other journals such as Snakeskin, Pulsebeat, Lighten Up Online, Amethyst Review, and a local Morris dancing group. Her interests include art, film, and photography.