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"Star light star bright." I spoke into the night
"I wish I may, I wish I might" I asked the first starlight
"Have the wish I wish tonight." I chanted it just right.
I'm Heather Anne Louise and I am wishing on that star:
"Make people tell the truth about the way things really are!"
Asking questions when you're eight won't get you very far.
The answers children get are very simplified and slanted.
Then suddenly I saw a light just when my wish was chanted.
And heard an owl hoot in response. Perhaps my wish is granted.
Little things seemed odd when I woke up in bed next day.
My mother was a buffalo ... but breakfast was okay.
When done, my bison mother said I could go out and play.
Animals were all about. It seemed just like the zoo.
I couldn't wait to ask them things to find out what they knew
for if my wish had worked last night their answers must be true.
A pastry-chef raccoon baked art more fine than I can say.
I asked "Why waste such genius on a work that lasts one day?"
He said "There's nothing man can make that will not fade away."
"Pyramid or fruitcake, nothing lasts eternally.
Though nothing ends without a trace within our galaxy,
All things pass on ... How soon is just a matter of degree."
I saw a camel in a hat regarding passersby
Drookles, squeeds and padnocks stood behind him piled high.
I asked him what he does all day and this was his reply:
"The customers try hard to keep from going overboard
And my job's to inspire them so caution gets ignored,
Then sell them things that they don't need and really can't afford."
I thanked him but went on my way. That thought just left me cold.
To think of all the padnocks, squeeds and drookles that he's sold
Which these poor folk could do quite well without if truth be told.
I asked this sweet orangutan who sat beneath the tree
Just what it is I'm doing here and "What is it I should be?"
She dropped her calculator, thought, and then she answered me:
"I spend all day just counting up the spoodles that we sell.
If that's the work that you should do, I simply cannot tell.
I think it's something else, not this, but you will do it well."
I thanked her for her thoughts and said "That's rather how I feel."
I did not share my first response: that her job's not ideal,
For counting spoodles all day long has limited appeal.
An Inca Tern worked at a desk with an electric quill.
He wrote of tiny gleeks and their effect upon free will.
He did not know if they exist but wrote about them still.
I felt intrigued and from behind I tried to take a look.
He said "Oh no! I must be first to publish such a book."
He saw it as a dreadful threat, that little look I took.
A farmer drake inspected foids he grew out in his field
He judged with thoughts of markets the anticipated yield.
When questioned though, that drake some quite disturbing things revealed.
"It spoils the soil and harms nutrition when we try to force
A crop for shelf-life, freight, and looks. I really don't endorse
These foids that taste like dryer lint." A sigh showed his remorse.
A giraffe kept watch, not far away, as tall as tall can be
From way up there I'm sure there's not a thing he cannot see
Perhaps if I can catch his eye, he'll come and talk to me.
I made a sound, he looked around and started with a bound,
Gazed right and left, and far and near, but not here on the ground.
He saw the mountains lakes and trees ... but me he never found.
I asked an emu home from war who sat down for a drink
"What was the purpose of these wars?" He answered with a wink
And said "That's really not my field. They taught us not to think."
"Our statesmen were the experts here -- the only ones who knew
Which statement was the truth today and what to say to you.
I daren't share what I know well -- that none is really true."
"They know which rumors to confirm and which to lie about
Why our aggression's justified, to protest theirs and pout."
I said "when I behave like that they put me on time-out."
I saw a doctor elephant come by a patient's bed.
He looked at instruments and then he slowly shook his head.
I asked the cause of his distress and this is what he said:
"Viruses, bacteria! We thought we'd handled these
And all those nasties carried by mosquitoes, tics, and fleas
We've tried to halt the progress of the causes of disease."
"For every organism killed we find new ills disperse
Themselves around the world en masse. The tide's now in reverse.
For after all we've tried to do, the threat to man is worse."
A pair of progloid priests sang softly as they strode along.
I asked about their life, love, work, and meaning of their song.
They told me how their faith taught that all other faiths were wrong.
"We teach you that you must be saved and what you have to do.
But in the end we've no idea if what we say is true.
We rant and threaten but we're even more afraid than you."
As dusk approached, a light shone from the schoolhouse on the hill
I'd asked all day and learned a lot but had some questions still.
Perhaps whoever's there can help. Let's find out if they will.
An owl stood at the old blackboard and slowly blinked an eye.
"Still have questions left unanswered? I'll give them a try.
You couldn't choose a better time. I hoped you would drop by."
And so I told her where I'd been and what I'd done today
I asked what life was all about - or my life anyway.
"What things should I be doing now?" Here's what she had to say:
"I've seen so much and miss the folk I knew so long ago
And now it won't be long before it's time for me to go.
And you, dear child, will see a world that I shall never know."
"I've helped you see a bit of how this age is strange and why,
Just as you've helped me many times before in days gone by.
We've seen the rise and fall of many empires, you and I."
"We've found our way through bog and briar, past desert bleak and vast.
We've fled the land and fought the sea beneath a broken mast.
Through times of grief and unsought hope we've shared a vanished past."
"You've hit a time of contrasts now, and opportunity.
These terrors, joys, and problems clash as none in history.
I've never seen an age so highly charged with energy."
"Heather Anne Louise you're doing just what you should do.
Your playing is your work right now ... and asking questions too.
Alas! You came too late for me to sail again with you."
"Later on the time will come to ask yourself, my dear,
Of all the roles which ones you'll play. And if you persevere
Great things will be accomplished thanks to Heather's presence here."
I thanked her very much for that, and all the things she said,
Saw camels, priests, and dryer lint go swimming round my head
And then I saw the sun shine in as I woke up in bed.
I saw a camel in a hat regarding passersby
I asked this sweet orangutan who sat beneath the tree
I saw a doctor elephant come by a patient's bed.
A pair of progloid priests sang softly as they strode along. 
