The Reader - Intellectual

I am the reader of SF and fantasy

Sit down beside me, I'll tell you my tale

Far have I travelled and much have I chanced to see

Primed for adventure and setting full sail

For I've learned one truth, and there is no doubt

You just can't stop reading until you see how it turns out

And then the dawn shall wake me

And then the dawn shall wake me and carry me home

I found a world in a globular cluster

A place where the suns never vanished from sight

Watched as the natives naïvely discussed

An approaching eclipse, with no knowledge of night

Till the hour arrives, and as the light runs

The sky is emblazoned by ten thousand mighty suns

And so the nightfall takes me

Until the dawn shall wake me and carry me home

There's an unfortunate team in Antarctica

Cursed with a visitor frozen in ice

Three flaming eyes and with waving blue tentacles

Ugly as Gorgon and not quite as nice

And soon they found, by one, by two and by three

That many among them were not what they seemed to be

And who goes there shall take me

And who goes there shall fake me

Until the dawn shall wake me and carry me home

I've been to Xanth and to Pern and to Dune

Sailed on the Space Beagle, mined on the Moon

Listened as Gafka's folk fertilized fans with their tune

Once did I meet with a grief-stricken pilot

A courier who carried a precious vaccine

Tearful and tragic the tale that he told to me

All of a girl who had been just sixteen

When she'd stowed away on his tiny ship

Heedless that there was but limited fuel for the trip

And those equations take me

Those cold equations shake me

Until the dawn shall wake me and carry me home

You may have heard of that young biochemist

It seemed there was no puzzle he couldn't solve

Thanks to the people he called Neoterics

Whom he had invented and caused to evolve

And who lived with him inside of a pen

He built on a table set up with a dome in his den

Oh, microcosmic god, take me

And microcosmically make me

Until the dawn shall wake me and carry me home

Ixchel and Vogon and Strider and Gleep

Hurkle and Master and Scanner and Sheep

These shall attend me as I drift away to my sleep

A houseful of boarders were wrapped up in mystery

Nothing revealing of why they were there

Proved to be visiting moments in history

Touring through time with a nonchalant air

And they had no care for those who would die

Off on vacation, to ancient Rome they must fly

And vintage seasons take me

Those vintage seasons take me

Until the dawn shall wake me and carry me home

Pity Lloyd Cavanaugh, met Happy Hooligan

Caused an egregious linguistic snafu

Seems that humanity's played for the fool again

Swizzle-stick brain cells for me and for you

And there's little hope for the power of speech

When all you can say is "Koeeg voh'pa navih maleech"

And Babel II shall take me

Egz Momish Dee lesh gov ru

Agkush no powg lesh fov ru egz vetu ru jair

I've purchased dragons at sidewalk bazaars

Found omnilingual citations on Mars

Even met Rhysling who scattered his songs to the stars

Now as I leave you, heed this invitational

Ye who would join me in singing this song

While your home planet continues rotational

Sing out your travels in verse loud and long

And your best-loved paths shall oft be rehearsed

And ever more lengthily shall be this melody versed

Until the dawn shall wake me

Until the dawn shall wake me and carry me home