What Dragons Read

Chinese classics, bound in bronze,
bejeweled, inscribed on gold sheets,
displayed in pride of place:
Sun Tzu, Confucius, Mencius,
Wu Cheng'En, the Book of Rites,
the Spring and Autumn Annals.

Reference works in microfilm:
the Journal of Metamorphic Geology,
Jane's All the World's Aircraft,
the Financial Times 1888-present,
the Encyclopedia Britannica, histories,
astronomical catalogs, aerial maps.

And hidden in their bedchambers,
amid the gems and precious metals
heaped beneath them as they drowse,
the scuffed and smoke-stained pages
of Balzac, Conan Doyle, Dumas,
and troves of Regency romances.

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Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers' Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest poetry book, "How to Navigate Our Universe," answers vexing questions such as "How to Surprise Saturn" and "How to Survive a Black Hole." She hides her online presence with a cryptically named website (marysoonlee.com and an equally cryptic Twitter account (@MarySoonLee).