I love this poem- Ps: just read this to Jim and he said "Ben I highly approve of this poem, love it!!"

Darn you, this is so good and I'm out of votes.
Smooth as honey from a butter cream tree.

Take care.

Damn it Ben! I'm out of votes too! Love this! I agree with Michael, this is ssssssmmmmmooooootttttthhhhhhhh......

The dark path of your ink Ben, takes me through a story of grief and anguish. A great rhyming scheme all through to the end.
Nicely done. M :)

Hey Ben, the title made me believe in 'every girl needs a Prince' as in... Without him she couldn't survive (though we could I'll have you know, just kidding - you know what my heart is like when it comes to being broken ha) like a dragon needs it's scales because without them would it really survive? Have any of them ever tried? Well, I guess we'll never know, will we?
This first stanza screams at me that you got more than you bargained for and I guess in life we all get more than we bargained for in one way or another more happiness than we could ever have wished for, more broken hearts than we deserved etc there's never just the right balance for any of us is there but then again even if there was would any of us truly be happy anyway? I think not. I'm sure we'd find something else to grumble about that's what us Brits are good at afterall.
This second stanza is my favourite because no matter what you try and do in your 'walk of life' neither one of us 'pesky' humans will be free of fault, we'll all be holding some kind of secret, some kind of grudge or some kind of fault we feel we have as not one of us are perfect but all we can thrive to be is better than the person we were yesterday. As the quote says (I think) "this is my life, unfortunately, I write in pen so I cannot erase my mistakes only learn from them."
This stanza goes back to what I was saying in my last we are but none of us perfect, we have are flaws and make our mistakes all we can do is learn to love our flaws and learn from the mistakes we made.
This piece, as ever, was astounding. All I can say as my final word is.... Go forth dragon you are worthy of love. Just kidding but even us dragons (me) are worthy of love even if we feel we're not, it's just certain people who aren't which I'm sure you know who I mean when I say off with their tails, I mean heads!!

Take care and stay safe
X

This poem is just breathtaking Ben, the language and rhythm play together beautifully crafting such rich and vibrant visual and emotions it is stunning, your poems are always a real treasure to read but this one in particular speaks to me the loudest and clearest. It genuinely is one of my favourite poems. Ever.

This is such an amazing poem, Congrats Ben :)

What an amazing piece! The rhythm and flow are perfect and your choice of language paints such a vivid picture. I'm sure I remember, a few years ago, you said you struggled with rhyme but you've very obviously got the hang of it now. One of your finest and well deserving of the front page.

Hello Ben,

I liked this a lot and so it is no surprise that this, polished piece of perfection has won this week.

All the best.

Congratulations on your win Dad! Excellent poem.

Just Beautiful. Congratulations on your win

Hey Ben, I did not read this Poem until this morning, having been absent without leave for months-Ha-Ha. You know how much that I love Metaphorical, and unforced Rhyming, for this, you are a Master. Congrats on your Win. These two lines jumped off the write; A bird is bright because it sings
And dragons need their scales. The Bird is envied, for it's beauty, and song. The Dragon mirrors today's World, with so many callous people, instead of the Dragon's scale shield to cover it's guilt, and shame, they adorn the Shakespeare type Masks, they have many to choose from.