My Dragon

The dragon in my belly
wraps its claws around my heart
and every pulse is agony
but the dying never starts.

The snake-like neck moves up my spine
the body's coiled and at rest,
but scales and claws catch and tear
spilling blood within my chest.

The crimson flow as bright as fire
seeps from every gash.
The dragon laps it up as fuel
tongue strikes me like a lash.

Did ever such a parasite
hold sway upon its host?
I loathe the dragon and the pain
but I hate myself the most.

Each whispered word that slithers
into my weary brain
has the sound of my own voice
in ceaseless soft refrain.

Out goes blood and in come lies
like poison to my soul.
The dragon has its residence
together we are whole.

I will not be that dragon
of anger and despair
but the battle never pauses
because the dragon's always there.

One of us will die someday
I pray it isn't me
to let a dragon wander loose
where my self used to be.

Perhaps we'll die together
as enemies sometimes end
As long as I do not lose
that means that I can win.

The dragon in my belly
has a mouth inside my mind.
It lives to bring me torment
and the battle is all the time.