i’m about to embark for a month in kansas — directing pageant at k.u. (i went to school there for a couple years) … i’m really looking forward to revisiting some college memories, making new friends and connecting with old ones … frank kelly, who co-wrote the book and lyrics for pageant, and i met as students there and he’s going to come in for the opening (i’m so pleased about that) … so this month’s poem is kansas-specific
when i was a child
i wanted to fly
over the rainbow
way up high
a tornado of dreams
made mine come true
to the land of oz
is where i flew
but then i woke up
and all the years after that
i’ve been here in kansas
where my world has stayed flat
colors aren’t as vivid
after oz
and doubters make me livid
after oz
how can i prove
the magic i saw?
the witches
the terror
the poppies
the awe?
how can i trust the natural law
after oz?
after the storm
the farm was restored
by hickory, hunk and zeke
a return to the norm
and soon i was bored
by the sameness week after week
then auntie em died
and toto too
and my world turned grayer and grim
but it got even worse
uncle henry remarried
miss gulch got her clutches on him
evil’s not as thrilling
after oz
it’s cold and bland and chilling
after oz
the only home
that i ever knew
was stolen from me
by that terrible shrew
just the beginning of how troubles grew
after oz
i had a brief sob
crossed the state in a bus
and moved to a trailer park
i found a job
tedium plus
and now sit alone in the dark
i try to relive
that long lost time
with the fate of a world at stake
your dreams may be real
filled with untold adventures
but eventually you awake
colors aren’t as vivid
after oz
and doubters make me livid
after oz
how can i prove
the magic i saw?
the witches
the terror
the poppies
the awe?
how can i trust the natural law
after oz?