Said dragon to his littlest
"Sulphur burps flame the best,
But in days of old we oft ate gold
Enough to make a nest."
"Those humans thought that we *stole* jewels!
*Snort* -- those greedy fools!
We hid encaved, but few were saved
From years of knight-fought duels."
"We scraped, we starved, we lived on moss
We evolved in hungry flocks
As years were wept we acquired and kept
The taste for ore-rich rocks."
"Encroachment came -- first small, then great
The bores dug ore-stream straight
And as they mined and heat-refined
Our lunch - they built their fate."
"To make, discard and then ignore --
Such waste of finest ore! --
New guns and planes and A.I. brains...
Until the robot war."
"There was not much -- when I was found --
Of good left in the ground
Their war was lost -- no human cost
Could turn the tide around."
"Then human folk asked dragonkind
What ores were left to find
Robots: wheels -- yum! -- tasty steels,
Yum! Rubidium refined."
"Sitting on their garbage dumps,
Chewing on some robot stumps
*Munch* humans *chow* they like us now.
Have some vanadium lumps."