Kites

When I was just a green and wide-eyed boy
I wanted to fly off with Peter Pan
To soar across the cold clear winter sky
And set our course for Never-Never Land.

When we arrived we'd seek out Captain Hook
To fight the blackguard and his motley bunch,
Then Peter shoves the pirate overboard,
The clock tick-tocks, the crocodile goes crunch!

It seems that Peter actually believed
That time was trapped inside that crocodile
That youth and innocence could be preserved
The golden moment sealed by amber guile.

I was entranced by Dorothy's flight to Oz,
That place beyond the rainbow's shining vault,
Cast up there by a violent whorling wind,
She and her dog, as from a catapult.

I longed so much to join her little band,
Scarecrow, Tinman and the cowardly Lion,
We'd slay the Witch so joy could reign supreme
And in this way we'd know our hearts design.

How fine a place where hope and love and joy
Are thwarted only by a witch's spell
Let's kill the evil hang, destroy her charms
So bluebirds swift can fly from hill to dell.

I dreamed such dreams when I was still a boy
But slyly did they slip and slide away,
Both youth and innocence like cowards flee
And evil toils beneath us night and day.

Yes, fairy tales are definitely tales,
And never was there Never-Never Land
For countless are the songs that go unsung
Interred beneath the ever shifting sand.

Yet we must dream or go through life as dead
For dreams exalt, they fill the sky like kites
Whose slender strands we feverishly grasp
To keep at bay the shadows of our nights.