NaPoWriMo (Day 5): Dragons vs unicorns Sports Day

For the month of April, I’m writing a poem a day from prompts on https://www.napowrimo.net. You can click on the headlines (Day One, etc) to view/add comments. There’s also a list of participants’ sites below the site header.

Day 5

And now for our prompt (optional, as always). Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about a mythical person or creature doing something unusual – or at least something that seems unusual in relation to that person/creature. For example, what does Hercules do when he loses a sock in the dryer? If a mermaid wants to pick up rock-climbing as a hobby, how does she do that? What happens when a mountain troll makes pancakes?

 
Dragons vs unicorns Sports Day 

It was the Sports Day of the mystical ages,
the groovy one that should go down in history.
First up to prove their mettle were the scaly dragons.
Four of them marched forwards on sprightly claws,
 
refraining from disintegrating everything in flames;
they only snorted smoke with a tiny cough, eyes watering.
Their foe, the pearly unicorns, dazzled in a line,
heads raised, necks straight, their bright eyes fixed.
 
A heap of plastic rings decorated the grassy ground.
The intrepid task for the dragons was to hurl them high
and see just how many would do the hula home.
The whistle blew and the gargantuan dragons scrambled,
 
their muscly forearms grabbing for a ring. Throwing wildly,
most of them missed their target, the rings plummeting,
But now and then a dragon jumped up and down with glee
as a plastic ring rattled down a gleaming spiral horn.
 
And so it went until the final loud whistle blew.
Thirteen rings had landed true, eight for Davy Dragon.
Next it was the turn of the majestic unicorns to play –
and it was a call for a baking extravaganza!
 
The dragons were to breathe their fire carefully,
directly into the air above, so no bystanders were harmed,
and the unicorns had to exactly time a pancake throw.
With a blow of the whistle, they all galloped forth,
 
bent their heads and spiked a pancake on their horn,
and with a flick of their neck the wibbly things flew
towards the dragons’ fiery makeshift ovens.
It was a messy event, with blobs of pancake splattering
 
everywhere, covering the dragons with sticky clumps.
By the end of the whistle the ground was heaving
with a blubbering mass of wibbly-wobbly goo.
The unicorns managed to cook ten pancakes in all.
 
The crowd went wild for the dragons that day,
but also clapped for the disappointed unicorns,
for there are no real losers on Sports Day,
only friends at play, competing and eating ice cream.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, April 5, 2020