Sometimes, in a dream, I remember

I am not as young as I used to be,

Even as I try to do an impossible thing

Climbing higher than the chasing pack

With only a flick of my foot

Racing over places I thought I knew

But never finding what I am looking for,

The interchange between magic and impossibility

My thrashing feet are gradually drawn down into water

That might be the sea

Until it is a lake

I run across the top for a little way

And think I am winning

Until the penny drops,

I am not Jesus either

Did he have trouble driving a car

Without an engine

Riding a stallion that turns out be the old rocking horse

We used to have stored

Up in the loft when I was a kid

Where, in winter

My dad would have me standing

With a candle,

Playing it across the inlet valve on the ballcock

A burst water pipe is an awful thing

Ceilings come down

Mattresses have to be thrown out

Repurposed canvas is easily cracked and

Turns into itty bitty shreds

That gets everywhere

In your teeth

In your hair

I know,

Of course, I could have done with a new bed,

Mine had a dip in the middle

At least I could never roll out by mistake.

It was dark and cold in the loft

Thick with spider webs

The wind whistling in through the gaps in the tiles

The trick was to stand on the rafters otherwise

A foot could go through the ceiling

Not an outcome I would ever wish for

My dad would have gone spare

Although it did happen to me once when I was renovating a flat

My foot went clear through the floor

Woodworm had run riot

The guy working downstairs

Painted over my shoe with a roller

White matt emulsion I do believe

Dulux probably

Although he was a bit of a tightwad

It might have been Homebase's own brand

It left neat footprints on what was left of the floorboards

There is no disguising the truth of waking

Whatever magic there ever was ended long ago

There are no supermen

That was always a fiction

But superheroes do exist

Getting up to face the day

Against all the odds

Living the dream even when it becomes a nightmare

Lifting feet that seem to weigh much more

Than they did the day before

Trying to catnap to see if they can find

That sweet spot in a reverie

When they were both lifted up together

And flew with the birds

High over the mountains

Wishing it was ever thus