Spaceman, Spacewoman and the Hero's Journey

I've had this poem in my head for a while.  The Star Wars the Force Awakens trailer yesterday actually ended up helping me finish it up.  Old grey Han Solo!

Spaceman, Spacewoman and the Hero's Journey

Spaceman, Spacewoman

Speaking in laser sounds

And mouthed explosions

In my bed

Looking out my window

Dreaming of

Jedi and saving the day.

There’s not a day

since my youth

when I haven’t imagined

Being the star

of a hero’s journey,

from overweight,

unmotivated

anti-social nerd

To intergalactic space knight

in the span of a montage

and unlikely coincidence.

Spaceman, Spacewoman

Speaking in laser sounds

And mouthed explosions

In my bed

Looking out my window

Dreaming of

Jedi and saving the day.

And I know

As I age,

The number of chances

to be whisked away

get fewer and fewer.

I’m a dad

and a husband,

The hero’s journey now

amounts to neglect of

people who love me. 

I can’t be

the bored kid,

who finds out that

he is the chosen one.

Spaceman, Spacewoman

Speaking in laser sounds

And mouthed explosions

In my bed

Looking out my window

Dreaming of

Jedi and saving the day.

But I know,

My journey’s changing.

instead of flying away

to do battle

in a galaxy far way,

I’ll defend my home.

and raise my daughter

to look up the stars and

Out across the horizon

Because the time will come

when she has the chance

to become

a force to be respected

and strike a blow

against

the empire

Spaceman, Spacewoman

Speaking in laser sounds

And mouthed explosions

In my bed

Looking out my window

Dreaming of

Jedi and saving the day.

There’s not a day,

in my thirties,

when I don’t imagine

Being the star

of the hero’s journey,

even if I play the old man,

Who gives the hero

the courage to carry on.

I am old Han Solo

telling stories

at bedtime

Before saving

the day.

Spaceman, Spacewoman

Speaking in laser sounds

And mouthed explosions

In my bed

Looking out my window

Dreaming of

Jedi and saving the day.