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Wednesday 28 November 2012

Lost Boy

Black shapes,
dark, predatory birds,
sky full of them, they fell
and swooped, I shrank
to half my size, ducked
dived, accelerated. Still
they came in ones and twos,
whole squadrons of them at a time.
Then Messerschmitts... machine gun
rattle, somehow soft, like Grandma's pills
spilled on the floor's linoleum.
Some scorched my ears... and I
a vulnerable Tiger Moth.
I flapped my wings, rolled side to side,
but still they came, their fearful hands
reached out like claws to savage me.

I vaguely heard
a Tannoy somewhere -- earphones playing up --
speak of a lost boy. I paid no heed --
I had no heed to spare!
was fully occupied with mortal fight
and frenzied flight. I'd swear on oath
that was the day 
I learnt the body swerve. 
Two came at me from either side.
I ducked again, enjoyed
to see the two collide.

It ended sadly, I'm afraid.
I crashed into a counter,
knocking over a display
and there above the wreckage, with
a Santa's Grotto-Christmas crowd-type backing, glimpsed
my would-be rescuers... and mother's face, 
the face that launched my thousand ships --
but on this one occasion killed
the fantasy stone dead.

15 comments:

rch said...

Hey Dave sorry I haven't commented in a while. This one is really packed with excellent imagery, I love the guns sounding like pills, that was brilliant, have a great day.

Ygraine said...

Oops!
Had me laughing so much I cried, this one Dave.
You have summed up the wonderful overactive imagination of childhood so eloquently here.
I just KNOW I'm going to keep coming back to re-read it again and again.
A real feel-good poem :)

Titus said...

Really like that Dave, strong writing, rich and evocative.

Brian Miller said...

smiles....we went to similar places today sir....haha that your mothers face killed the fantasy....lol..oh how fragile the moth when the claws come too...

Tabor said...

Great holiday vignette. That is where the hero is and the real world is just an interruption.

Optimistic Existentialist said...

This was a great poem Dave!!

Mary said...

Ha, this gave me a smile, Dave. Head on over to Poetry Jam this week with this one. The prompt is: fantasy or make believe!

Jenny Woolf said...

Ah, lovely, Dave! I was wondering what it was all about. I thought it would turn out to be a nightmare, but of course you do describe entirely the feeling of playing, when it is so very startling to suddenly collide (literally in your case) with reality!

Carl said...

Great imagery Dave. I totally enjoyed.

Dave King said...

Hey Folks
Sorry I can't get around to you all today. I'm having a little local difficulty. Namely £they£ -- whoever they are -- are accusing me of flooding cyberspace with spam (which I'm not!)and so I am being blocked.
I've spent ages so far trying to get myself unblocked, but so far to no effect.
Hope to be round tomorrow.

Elephant's Child said...

Love it. Good luck with your unblocking - which sounds a little like plumbing. And wouldn't you love to send Draino'' coursing through both the spammers and those that have accused you?

Saucy Siciliana said...

Oh, my goodness the ending was so funny, I didn't expect it! You're really good at describing, I could just picture everything. I am a new follower. Hello from Trapani, Sicily.

A Cuban In London said...

A child's flight of imagination. Beautiful. Many thanks.

Greetings from London.

haricot said...

I was amazed when you described how you came to be aware from your dream...

Dave King said...

No resolution so far to the blocking of my emails (see above). It affects only outgoing mail, so if you have or are emailing me you can do so as usual. I have discovered that I can still use my other web mail, so it looks like Google is involved in this somewhere along the line!!! I shall press on regardless!

In the meantime I have visited you all, but it still remains for me to reply to another really supportive bunch of comments.

I have been particularly pleased of late - and again here - to receive appreciative comments re the humour in my offerings. I had not thought of myself in such terms before blogging.

Especially good to have new names among those who comment. Thank you for doing so. I hope you will feel most welcome and appreciated.

It is particularly frustrating that I cannot find the time to thank you all personally for your many telling comments.