Cyberdawlish Poem by Don Pearson

(A forum-based role-playing fantasy adventure.
For those who have stimulated my imagination.)

Here, in this place of light and shadow,
Darkness may illuminate and brightness hide.
Who knows what lies beneath obscuring cloaks,
Behind the names chosen to reveal
Only an image, projected onto a screen
At the discretion of the writer.
Here is a phantasmagoria, a new world
Both safe and dangerous.

Here, you can fire volleys of insults
At the sweet old lady from the bridge club.
Here, the coward points out the dragons
For others to slay.
Here emerge a death’s-head hawk moth
And a purple emperor.
Here lurk chameleon and ghoul.
Here, you can ally with the man
Who was not thinking of net curtains
When he warned you to “watch out”.
Here, amidst the flames,
Deacon Truth preaches to Dullish Viaduct
About who is dismantling the arches.

Here, the timid poet may pretend illiteracy,
(Don’t fink thut your anonymous,
I now just where yew liv)

Here, the politician will tell the truth
As he believes it to be.
(There was a time I thought I knew.
But now, I am less sure)

Here, many voices invoke the name “Anon”
And yet he heeds them not.
(A band of namesakes playing in
An endless civil war)

Here, the motleyed fool projects
Other people's wisdom.
(As many names and characters
As colours on his coat)

Here, the schoolmistress can masquerade as dullard
(That teenaged girl has fathered
A myriad of men)

Here, the Teignmouth bachelor posts as Dawlish maid.
(The childless raise their family
of spectres yet to come)

Here, a prostitute is abroad as Mother Teresa
While Sister Mary-Martha walks the streets.
(The strumpet sounds out loud again
But now my gold has gone)

Here, the atheist espouses religion.
(I phrase belief in such a way
That readers disbelieve)

Here, a man unsure of who he is
eschews a pseudonym.
(So many voices in my head,
My name, at least, I own)

30th August 2008