(3.4) Dragon's Fight Poem by Karl Stuart Kline

Dawn beneath the twin sisters (the moons of Pern) ...
With thanks to Anne McCaffrey for her great works and her good humored tolerance of me as the “Poet of Pern! ”
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A phalanx of fierce fire breathers will
Quickly rise to meet the brand new day,
Slipping from the early mornings’ chill
To icy Between, they’re on their way,

Transporting their courageous riders
And emerging to tropical midday
There to be joined by many others,
To prepare for the battle today

Their enemy is never evil,
It’s not a malevolent menace
A phenomenon that’s natural,
But it’s a deadly threat nonetheless

A huge cloud of hungry strands drifts down,
Their birthplace orbits in outer space,
From the sky over country and town,
They will fall, utterly merciless

Fighting takes wisdom and strategy,
It helps to be utterly fearless,
But it needs to be done carefully,
Because Threadfall will kill the careless

Quickly learning it’s true for either
And whether it’s Dragon or rider
They must depend upon each other
And neither one is ever master

They’re closely bonded from the Hatching,
Closer than any marriage partner,
They can even touch each others’ minds
And act in concert that much faster...

Nevertheless, the Thread can kill them,
Acid eats through skin or scale and will
Separate the flesh from bone and then,
Reaching vital organs, quickly kills.

Threadfall does not come very often,
But if it’s allowed to reach the ground,
It can render whole regions barren,
Eating through the lush growth and on down

Predicted like a comets’ trail, or
Even like a meteor shower,
Thread is predicted and prepared for,
Battle ready at the given hour...