poem poetry childhood imagination science fiction ray bradbury

RAY

came across Ray Bradbury
sitting, spinning
a fantastic yarn

to all
caring to listen

but no one was there in
Parow Children’s Library

uncanny this was
quite mysterious

and what did I know then
of quantum entanglement,
alternate
universes, simulations?

what did
anyone know including
physicists?

so I just sat there and absorbed
death rays, Mars, bullets that
killed first astronauts sounding
like bees
time travel fractures, vampires upstairs
evil circuses
fruit in a bowl
never enough clean

now I am not entirely sure
if it happened at all though the

whys and
hows

seem, in retrospect, so
obvious
dark tales they were
but
filling my bland
grey soul with
a beam of light