Have you ever woken up some days with a spring in your step? A smile on your lips and a gladness in your heart? When that first mug of coffee tastes satisfyingly divine When the day just gets off to a really good start?
It’s on days like that when my imagination too Wakes up laughing, grins at me and flies into the great blue. And then with some dread but mostly merriment, I await its adventurous shenanigans.
And then I imagine I am one of the clouds That looks like a dragon breathing fire from its mouth. As it rides along on the currents above It gently morphs from a monster into a paddling duck.
I imagine floating in the arms of a breeze A monarch butterfly; a sparrow flying atop the trees. Then I imagine catching a jet stream nearby And like an eagle, gliding into the vastness of the sky. I am Mistress of all that I survey from on high I soar through the clouds, I spy with my eye.
Then some unsavoury vestigial reminder Will bring me right back to solid terra firma: That time when i just wasn’t quick on the ball And let the neighbourhood bully caterwaul. Then I imagine I’m body-suited tight enough to give me a rash Replaying the scene; now Super Hero-ing it with panache! (I imagined going at it in my everyday best But the Superwoman is quite lost in all that bagginess!)
I imagine being able to read and bend minds, Like the X-Men*; more the Professor Xavier* kind: With truckloads of conscience but the power to appease My bus loads of ire at all the villains and thieves. The balancing Yang is the goodness within To the viscerally satisfying acts of its twin.
Then I imagine myself as a whisperer of sorts Of elephants and mynahs, leopards and peacocks; Exchanging secrets of our combined universe; Talking in tongues; speaking in prose and in verse.
I also fondly imagine that I can get through to the domestic cat. These creatures with their many moods profound Irk and delight, but never cease to astound. (I presume you can tell I’m what they call a Cat Lady With A grocery bag full of feline treats on the handy!)
I’m exaggerating a tad to make this verse rhyme; I also adore all sots of canines! But imagining the power to amass the city’s hounds Just invokes nightmares where mad cacophony abounds. So even in its buoyant, unfettered jubilation I have tended to rein in my leaping, bounding Imagination.
And then when night falls and I’m finally abed When the mind is exhausted and the body’s fed. I imagine one last little thing: Floating in the night sky with Orion; So close to the Cosmos, that I can hear her hum As she slows down the pace of her infinite strum. As she gathers up Earth in her bountiful arms, Embracing us all; anointing each with her balm …
I drift off to sleep; while the chimera of my mind Plays the best parts of my day in a happy rewind.
* X-Men/ Professor Xavier: X-Men is an American superhero film series based on the fictional superhero team of the same name, who originally appeared in a series of comic books created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and published by Marvel Comics. Professor Charles Xavier is the founder/ leader of the X-Men.