Downstream (first 52250flash of 2011)

My body is stuck in an inner tube bobbing slowly down our little river.  My mind is moving somewhat faster. I zip past a paddle wheeler whose cub pilot is marking twain.  Then, after shore leave in the Big Easy, I ship out to the Heart of Darkness to find the White Whale.

My bony old butt scrapes a rock and I have to paddle like an upside-down turtle back into the current.  Under full steam again I scoot by Gilligans’ Island and render honors to Darwins’ Beagle.  Soon though, I arrive at my ultimate destination, my tiny kingdom somewhere in the Pacific.

This is where my dreams always end, in a hammock under the bluest sky you’ve ever seen.  Every morning the children gather flowers to weave into my crown.  In between sunrise and dinner I manage to fend off European invaders and a giant squid. This is the somewhere I’ve never been that is more familiar to me than my own skin.