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Saturday 30 March 2019

The Impossible Dream


The Impossible Dream

What a joy it is to be rational,
To only believe what’s in front of your eyes,
Yet look at the evidence all around us,
You’d be in for quite a surprise!

Man’s capacity to imagine
The weird, the oddball and the bizarre,
Can take you to a whole new planet
Of experience that’s stranger by far.

Perhaps it came from man’s superstition,
His attempt to explain the universe,
Perhaps it just came out of old folklore,
To explain bad fortune and worse.

Mythical creatures come to the fore:
The Yeti, or Bigfoot or Unicorns,
Ghosts and griffins, werewolves and wyverns,
Pixies, sphinxes, sylphs and leprechauns.

The bogey-man, the sand-man, Santa Claus,
Flying pigs, Pegasus the winged horse,
Fauns and fairies, angels, devils and demons,
And the Loch Ness Monster of course.

Frankenstein’s monster, and Count Dracula,
Vampires and zombies, the walking dead,
Hobbits and hydras, warlocks and witches,
And for chimeras there’s a lot to be said.

Goblins and dragons, and doppelgangers,
Satyrs and sirens, mermaids and mer-men,
Cerberus and cyclops, and the Phoenix,
And shape-shifters far beyond our ken.

But beyond the three-humped camels,
What’s the point in this day and age?
Isn’t it Elf and Safety gone mad?
Isn’t it time to turn a new page?

Haven’t we yet finished with orcs and with trolls?
Do we still need imps, ogres, the manticore?
Wraiths, The Grim Reaper and Santa Cluas?
Shouldn’t we ask what it’s all for?

It’s the twenty-first century now!
We know how things work, covered every angle -
Shouldn’t we bundle up all of this nonsense,
And lose it in the Bermuda Triangle?
  
Or perhaps someone has an interest
In keeping this in front of our eyes?
The franchises, the branding, the products,
And a chance to sell us more merchandise?

Or maybe a need for some fantasy,
To forget that life can be a bit gritty,
To indulge our imaginations,
To escape from a reality that’s shitty?

Anyway, I’ve bent your ears for long enough,
I need to run along, I’ve got plenty to do -
I’ve got an appointment later night –
It’s the new series of Doctor Who!

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2019

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