DENNIS LEE TRILOGY

THE WIZARD

I went to see the wizard
In the middle of the night.
His eyes were fierce and far away,
His cloak was burning bright.

“O wizard, can you teach me
How to rise and fly away?”
He stared at me, and glared at me,
And taught me what to say:

“Zooomberry, zoomberry, zoomberry pie:
Zoomberry, zoomberry, now I can fly.”

I said it once, I said it twice,
I said it three times three;
With mighty shout I bawled it out
Until he growled at me,

“You have to say it softly,
You have to say it slow,
You have to whisper it at night
As off to sleep you go:

“Zooomberry, zoomberry, zoomberry pie:
Zoomberry, zoomberry, now I can fly.”

So home I went, and down I lay,
And closed my sleepy eyes,
And as I whispered “Zoomberry,”
I felt my body rise.

Then up I floated, off I flew,
The whole wide world to see –
And now each night I tell the spell
The wizard taught to me:

“Zooomberry, zoomberry, zoomberry pie:
Zoomberry, zoomberry, now I can fly …”
(Zoomberry, zoomberry, now I can fly.)

Copyright: from Melvis and Elvis (HarperCollins, 2015), © Dennis Lee 2015,

DEEPER

Often at night, sometimes
out in the snow or going into the music, the hunch says, 
“Deeper.”
I don’t know what it means.
Just, “Push it. Go further. Go deeper.”

And when they come talking at me I get
antsy at times, but mostly I stay put 
and it keeps saying, “Deeper. 
This is not it. You must go deeper.”

There is danger in this, also
beautiful fingers and I believe it can issue in
gestures of concord; but I
cannot control it, all I know is one thing—
“Deeper. You must go further. You must go deeper.”

© Dennis Lee, from “So Cool,” (Key Porter Books 2004)