I’m not that kind of courageous
To defer to you dear reader and efface myself
I would rather share my imagining
Which you may take as you wish or leave behind

Here come all the gumballs again
Tumbling rolling spilling to the floor

There was this lucky lucky boy
Who got to drink from the fire hose
It was the 80s when he went flying
Across that glaringly lit studio
That’s easy for me to say

Cyrano’s five-dimensional bicycle shop
With pistachio ripple

The turnip tops cooked in vinegar
With turnip root mixed in
That one really happened

The small children playing pretend
With me as the protagonist
Instead of those witless beasts of the Paw Patrol

Space centaurs male and female
With rocket streams coming out of their butts

The gummy babe at the nipple
Eyes rolling back like the eyes of a knocked-out boxer
Smiling and twitching like the defeated
Who descends slowly to the canvas
That one really happened too

Or that one occasion when I almost got to play
With the Grateful Dead
Back before Jerry tuned in turned on
And dropped way way all the way out

And the dream woman with the belladonna eyes

And if you allow me my crotchets
I will regale you with anecdotes
Of my time in TV heaven
With Peewee Herman and Captain Carl

Have my peaches free gratis without fee
You need not even shake my tree