Robin Williams is Peter Pan

By Sean Dempsey

When I was a child
There stood a house by a lake
In a bed of woods it did lay
We would yearly devote
To find hearth reached only by boat
On a trip that took forever and a day.

When I was a child
My two brothers and I
And little sister, merely three years,
We would play high in a tree
In house built for them and for me
By our father with a dark bristly beard.

When I was a child
High in that tree far away
I was Rufio with his host of lost boys
My sister was Tink
All dolled up in pink
And Hook schemed to loot and destroy.

When I was a child
Neverland was my home
My childhood played out in that tree
Loosely nailed boards
Held boys playing with swords
Where life was brazen and free.

When I was a child
Far away in the woods
I climbed the tree ladder so high
There was a mermaid to kiss
And no parents to miss
While happy memories taught Peter to fly.

The years ticked on by
And to the woods I’d return
But, peeping up, before the base of the tree
Neverland, it seemed,
More and more like a dream–
And the boy no longer in me.

When no longer a child
I returned to the lake
My father’s bristly beard now fully white
I looked up at the Pine
Holding memories all mine
And beheld my treehouse’s plight:

Rotted were boards
That held the supports
And the tree itself all but had died
Hook, it did seem–
That scoundrel and fiend–
Was attempting to leave us deprived

On my 30th year
I returned to the lake
To find my treehouse did no longer stand
Smashed to the ground
Only pieces were found
Of the once beloved Neverland.

My childhood fell
But I shed not a tear
I’d find treehouses in my future to build;
And then Neverland would,
For Neverland should,
In every child’s mind be filled

—-

I heard on the news
That a funnyman died–
But I once knew him as Peter Pan.
Seems his treehouse collapsed
And laughter was sapped
The day the child turned man.