WAKING

Words byZan, tune 'Dreaming' by Kathy Mar

I stand in the spaceport, my hands full of papers
And argue the toss with a man in a cap
Who earns more in an hour than I've saved in a twelvemonth
To sit at a counter and give me this crap
But my passport is valid, my visa's in order,
I've had all my shots and I've paid for this ticket
If I'm not on board within twenty-five seconds
I'll blow this damn spaceport right clear off the map.

I sit by the viewport and wonder in silence
If the lady beside me will ever be still
As she starts on the story of her cousin Ira
Whose daughter's third husband's great-grandmother's...ill
And this isn't my seat, 'cause I paid to go first class
The boob in the cap lost my seat reservation
And something appears to be wrong with the engines
We've not taken off yet, and I doubt if we will.

I wake in the night having had too much pizza
And all that I've told you is out of my head
And some may well think that if that is our future
It's a good thing it won't come till after we're dead
But people won't change though we span the dark spaceways
They'll always be silly and funny and human
And if all these wonders aren't STILL worth the dreaming
We might as well dream about dragons instead.