David H W Grubb
Learning to Fly
My children fall out of the world into dreams
where flying is the first thing you do. They already
know that this is not possible when we are around. They
also know that some of the animals cannot be mentioned
or it leads to questions, frowns, disbelief and even harm.
In church they see saints doing the fantastic and beasts
wandering between miracles and battles and all the animals
fall down in front of St Francis when he commands them.
The nearest we get to this is in stories of walls that go for
a walk and zoos where the people are in cages and when the sun
and moon speak in sonata-form. Ballet also gets near to it
but when adults try too hard you get bad sculpture
and long poems and operas where the small bellowing heads
of ugly females fog-horn rapture above mossy bosoms
and the sight of unicorns makes some the men cross their legs.
Page(s) 45
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