Tuesday 26 April 2016

You really need to grow up

Maybe I'm a kid
because I like reading books about men who fly around in their underwear
you might call me immature
but that's neither here nor there,
After all, doesn't Superman do the same thing?

Maybe I'm a kid
because I like reading books with illustrations
as an English Lit student you might have some Great Expectations
but here are a few complications

Maybe I'm a kid
because I like reading books that
make me smile
where I don't have to read mile after mile
of the Elves walking through Lothlorien.

Maybe I'm a kid
because I'm sick of reading about the French revolution
about the evolution of Burke, Paine and Blake
for goodness sake

Maybe I want to read a text without any drama
where I can just flip a flip-o-rama
where my mind feels like it's escaped
where it can't be shaped by Virginia Woolf or James Joyce
maybe I don't want to go to the Lighthouse or read about narrative voice

Maybe I'm a kid
because I like reading books that break the fourth wall
that don't make me feel like a fool
when I don't initially understand
that the Sound and the Fury is a critique of the
decaying Southern Landscape.

Maybe you're the kid
who should desert your Pride and Prejudice
because all I need is a goodnight kiss
from my favourite bedtime story
in all of its glory

Maybe you're the kid and you need to grow up
so lost in your intellectual mind
that you've cast asunder
your childhood innocence and wonder

Maybe you're the kid
who needs to conduct a thorough exploration
of your imagination
of everything you've left behind
and let me know exactly what you find.

Author Notes

This is something I wrote for an internship application with Ladybird.  For the application process, we have to discuss our favourite childhood book and explain why we love it so much.  We were allowed to be as creative as possible, so I decided to write a performance poem about why I love Captain Underpants.


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