Giant

When I was just a child, a giant
Moved in with me at home.
Day times he hunkered in the yard,
At night crouched in my room.

At noon he was a shadow
Between myself and day,
And hourly his shadow grew
On friends and me at play.

He could throw a frisbee farther
And was stronger than us all.
He didn’t even have to jump
To dunk a basketball.

And he could run much faster
With his giant ten foot strides,
So we had to pick the giant first
When choosing up for sides.

He had an irritating laugh
And an aggressive streak,
Too violent for patty-cake,
Too loud for hide-n-seek.

One night I dreamed of dragons
Flying o’er the woods and lake
And sat up suddenly... afraid.
There he sat too... awake.

Strange, a little scary,
Peevish, hard to please,
Rude, gloomy, and tyrannical,
He was all of these.

Then, when I went off to school,
Of course, he followed me
Like some giant Tweedle-dum
To my Tweedle-dee.

I even learned to use him
On homework tests at school.
He was good with facts and numbers.
He wasn’t any fool.

Nor was he invisible.
Folks saw him well enough.
I only had to nod his way
And folks thought I was tough.

I had to learn to live with him.
I finally came to see
Wherever in the world I went,
This giant went with me.

Alone I could ignore him;
He didn’t talk or sing.
But he made others nervous,
Friends and family... that’s the thing.

My wife especially suffered
From living with a giant.
She found him petulant, aloof,
Proud, sullen, and defiant.

I, of course, was kind and gentle,
But he finally caused a rift.
She screamed and cursed the giant,
Then packed her bags and left.

Soon my friends stopped calling.
My employer let me go.
I’d learned to live with him, I guess.
No one else had though.

It’s hard to dump a giant
Who’s been with you so long,
But to tolerate a giant
I finally saw was wrong.

Then one night I watched him
By the window in the gloom.
His back was turned, the window open.
He was staring at the moon.

So I jumped from bed and ran at him
And gave that giant a push.
The window was three stories
Above a bramble bush.

He tumbled out into the night!
But it was a mistake.
For he spread two giant wings!
And did a turn around the lake.

Yes, my giant was a dragon!
You may have a dragon too.
And your first job is to kill
That giant dragon... if you do.

Ancient heroes knew their dragons
And who it was they had to slay.
So be sure to know your dragon,
For it’s just as true today.