Dragon's Egg

At first, it was small, protected by a silver shell,
When it was laid in the bottom of a well.
It drifted there and glittered with the water,
While above the centuries fell to slaughter.

Then it was large, and black, and it grew wings
To bear it away to the end of all things.
Obsidian, silver-banded, it wandered in space,
To learn the cold and grow in darkness-grace.

Then it turned the color of the ocean,
And fell into the waves with a simple motion.
It learned the motions of fish, the songs of whales,
And the ships that every human nation sails.

Then it floated into the midst of the sky,
Borne up by a ray of sunshine flashing by.
It grew there, and learned how to drift,
And how to fall with the falcon's plummet swift.

Then it was whirled into the jungle's path,
And lay there and listened, to hear monkeys laugh.
There were flowers whose scents it learned,
And the color of the shell red and green was burned.

Then it rolled into the desert's bright sands,
Where it was caressed by dune's and wind's hands,
Buried for an age, and then led to the light again.
It wandered into the towns of the wandering men.

Then it remained among them, a large golden stone,
That for a while was worshipped, for a time stood alone.
It lay there and listened to the cries of babes' birth,
And the cry of the elders as they left the earth.

Then it went north, to learn from the floating ice floes
How to judge the power of blue and green shadows.
It was swatted by the paws of honeyed polar bears,
And splashed into the cold sea among seal-cares.

Then it went gossamer through the cities of steel,
To learn the ultimate power, to both kill and heal. 
There it learned the color of asphalt, and of gray
Pavement in the morning which the rain rubs away.

Then it went out to the savannahs on the edge,
Wild windy places without a fence or a hedge.
It saw the small birds, it saw the small flowers,
Which, though so small, have their own healing powers.

Then it went to the forests and the woods divine,
Where it lay to drink of the wind's and trees' wine.
It heard the song, it listened to the music of green,
And grew that color, black-verdant of shadows unseen.

Then it sojourned for a while in the lands of dream,
Where nothing is real, but everything can seem.
It learned what is really there and what is really not,
And learned things that other beings have long forgot.

Then it journeyed into the heart of a volcano,
And learned to tell which way the lava will go.
It turned gold and scarlet there, all the colors of flame,
While something in the fire whispered to it its name.

Then it was the coolness of caverns beneath the earth,
Where stalactites laugh in strange stony mirth.
A grace of gray was added to all the other hues,
And a certain grace that the egg was never to lose.

Then it came to rest at last in the place decreed long
Ago that would see the beginning of a song.
It rested there, and rocked; far beneath the jewels,
A new one, a young one, came climbing from pools,

And space, and air, forests, with all of each portal
Lodged firmly in her, who deserved to be immortal.
She shook her head to shed the egg, and another story
Began, another dragon began the long climb to glory.