Vocation

Prompt for: Feb 14 (Ren/Fyn)
Subject or Theme: Love. A person, specific place (not just the name of a city or country) job, pet...something/one you really, totally love and why.
Word(s) to Include: Komodo Dragon, heart, appreciate, cyanide, (or any derivatives of these words)
Forbidden Word(s): love, like, adore, cherish, life, my. (or any derivatives of these words)
Additional Parameters: minimum 18 lines, rhyming or not.
Remember, do not use forbidden words ANYWHERE, including title or the brief description.

Vocation

An intrinsic feeling that seeps deep
within you, flowing through every cell,
infusing the fiber of your being
with a sense of appreciation, of sheer gratitude
simply because it is and you know it.

Worked for, bled for,
cried over, thrilled over,
gone bleary-eyed and
tongue-tied over,
lost sleep and had nightmares about,
day-dreamed and came out
on top. Screaming in joy
from the canopy--
I am Wynwidyn and Wynwidyn is me.

A Komodo Dragon is less fierce than I defending
each branch, each twig, each stick of the heart.
Hours spent in editing, fileting paragraphs
down to meat and bone,
shooting cyanide-tipped arrows through
plot holes or purpled prose.
Laying out a book, fighting space
to garner correct page counts and being
ever-so-careful
not to marginalize author intention.
Inspired covers that say just enough
to entice, to tangle the reader,
entrance them to read, dive in, be encompassed.

Tears streaming when author holds his book
for the first time, when she pets a matte cover,
and tells you how pretty it is.
Christmas moments year round.

Writer I am. Ink flows through my veins.
Writing is the very air I breathe.
But seeing a book hit the stands,
hearing child-like squeals of joy
from a grown man,
seeing their baby, their child--
their book published--
this is what I live for, this is what I do.

Dream realized. It is said one should be
inordinately fond of what one does--
for when one is, it no longer is merely a job.
Vocation, perhaps.
Yes.