Captain Oliver Poem by Edmund V. Strolis

Oliver felt the ground around him, while rolling to his hands and knees
One moment he was leaping and whistling along the valley floor
The next he had fallen within a gaping mouth hidden by brush and brier
Oliver a ginger headed boy was fueled by the winds of imagination and adventure
The scamp's fantasy and reality were one and the same, king, philosopher and liar

This land below the valley draped in red vines, ruby toadstools and crimson grass
So deep that it shared the hot roof floor with the main chamber of Hades heart itself
Oliver grinned never worried, he stood with hands on hips and whistled once again
He heard his dear granny saying that if you laugh at fear you can never be beaten
So as the air darkened blood red he lifted his head, he was ready for the fun to begin

He would tell this story and a thousand others, of places, faces and daring deeds
He was all motion and mayhem, howling laughter, a sun burnt freckled toothy grin
He laughed at the pasty boys with their heads and souls stolen by cold screens
He could not pretend to care one bit for their sterile, wired, and carpeted world
He craved the rush of a screaming storm, in the mast of a tree, within a sail of green