He met my mind one day while
perusing the dialogue of birds.
A chirp here, a cricket there.
Sometimes a growl.

Yes, a growl from a grumpster.
He almost broke us up!

Yes, almost! The jerk!
But we knew. How? I don’t know.

We knew. We just knew that the time would come
when men in the dragon’s pocket would lose their way.

That was, what, 20 years ago?

About that, yes.