Kissing the Alien (a boyhood dream)

Awash with the monochrome glow
Of Saturday television
I would watch cardboard rocket ships on strings
Wobble into polystyrene cities
Buck and Flash and James T. Kirk
Would wrassle to the ground
All manner of humanoids with strange features
Made of mud or rock or wood
Each one succumbing to the earthling’s righteousness
With a boff and a thud

And that was great

On these far-flung planets of the outer galaxies
Men had wings or jet-fuelled rocket packs
Pistols shot white lights that exploded like fireworks
On Andurian New Year
Justice prevailed, the underdog won
And evil was vanquished
Until next Saturday morn

And that was great too

But each time Kirk or Gordon
Would find themselves locked in an interstellar embrace
(Red lips pressed against green
The milky-way swirling in her eyes
A triumvirate of tits tightly wrapped up in tin-foil
Pistols cocked and set to stun)
This was when I knew that I simply had to be
The galactic hero
Kissing the alien
Beneath the twin moons of Castillion 3

Forty now
And my disbelief has been permanently suspended
I know Leia loves Han
Just as much as he does
Flash would still save the Earth if he only a teabreak to do it in
And Dale would love him, regardless
Even Lucas’s betrayal has lost its impact
There is no green-screen to stand in front of
And imagine a better world; full of fun

And I still haven’t kissed the alien
In the yellowy haze of the setting suns