What is an Emotion?

For my father, who helped me
see the humor in this situation

I stand in front of dragons ten mountains tall,
teeth red with blood, long as houses,
feet covered with silver scales,
tongues of firebombs. My stomach
is kneaded dough. The dragons' eyes
stare at me. I know I must speak.

What is an emotion?

The dragons' heads tilt,
one raises his left wing slowly,
Like when you move?

The dragons get smaller.
They look up at me from desks
only two and a half feet tall,
silver caps on their teeth, shoelaces
untied, voices like crickets.

Um... no, that's motion. E-motions are like feelings. Who can give me an example of a feeling?

Ten hands raise, ticking back and forth
at the highest speed of a metronome.
I pick a boy sitting by himself, mouth
opened in an "O." Um, a feeling is...
I feel tired?

The other children yell, I know, I know!
I stand at the blackboard,
the chalk between my fingers
like twenty horses dragging my hands.
I try to write.

I want to say,
an emotion is like an animal that lives inside us. When we are hugged, we feel like kittens with their mother. When our sister takes our toys we feel like roaring lions. When our friends ignore us, we feel like puppies in a cage.

Instead I find the words are bigger dragons,
their breaths of fire drown my pleas.

by E. M. Soos

Background on this poem