It's a fun story, so once again I post it.

Hello my friends,
The following is a story I wrote years ago
and just recently revised it.
Please take the time to read it.
I hope you enjoy it, do let me know.
Thanks and remember, Life is Good.
Dave.

The Land of Reverse

It was late one night, I just couldn't sleep;
I tried everything, even counting sheep.
Restless as any one person can be,
I was wide awake! And it was bugging me.

I tried falling asleep, hanging off of my bed,
I even tried sleeping standing on my head.
Hours upon hours, I lay there awake,
How many tick tocks was it going to take?

Suddenly! I dreamt up a crazy thought.
I'll sleep without sleeping.
It was the best thought I'd got.
SoI shut my eyes, shut them real tight.
I went ten miles left, then ten miles right.

I let my mind wander, I dived in head first.
And found myself standing in the Land of Reverse.
I dodged traffic on sidewalks to get to the street,
And there stood a man on his hands, not his feet.

"It's backwards, he laughed, with a bit of a frown,
"What you see up is really straight down,
Things appear closer than they really are;
It's all because close is so very far."

Amused and confused, I then asked the man,
"Is everything flip-flopped in this strange land?
What will I see in this crazy place?"

"Dear boy! he then screamed, with a smile on his face.
"You'll see without seeing, and you'll hear things you don't.
You'll smell taste and feel things, and then again no you won't.
So run along and remember this simple thought,
"Wherever you're going you really are not."

Puzzled by the words of the hand-standing man,
I took his advice, and I ran and I ran.
I ran through a wall, or was it a door?
I stood on the ceiling, and I looked up at the floor.

All around me I saw invisible things,
Birds flying backwards, without any wings.
There were mice chasing cats and cats chasing dogs,
Fish catching people, and flies eating frogs.

Over clouds and through sky, I continued to run,
Looking forward to doing things I've already done.
And it wasn't until I stood up to rest,
when I noticed my back! "My back! It's my chest!"

My nose was my mouth, my mouth was my nose,
And when I wiggled my fingers, I was wiggling my toes!
All twisted backwards, I'd been rearranged;
My body had been through some kind of weird change.

Through it all I confess, I was thinking the worst--
Yet I really felt safe in this Land of Reverse.
I shivered through heat and sweated in cold,
I felt young as ever, but was wrinkled and old!

Slipping and sliding up a trunk of a tree,
I closed my eyes, looking for me.
I looked for me up, and I looked for me down,
But there i was nowhere. I couldn't be found.

So since I was nowhere, not up, down or in,
I took off for a place I had already been.
And the sights I was seeing, which I will never see,
were twisting and swirling all around me.

Real pretend animals, not really, Yes true!
They were feeding the people who live in the zoo.
Yes tigers and elephants, penguins and seals,
were feeding the people seven course meals.

As all of the people ate these snacks in their cages,
The animals did nothing completely outrageous.
They looked at me, without looking and said
"What are you doing out of your bed?"

I thought for a moment, without thinking a thought,
I told them I'm in bed, in bed no I'm not.
They all started crying, although I knew in my head,
They were all having fun and were laughing instead.

I said my goodbyes, and waved my hellos,
Where would I go now? I don't really know.
It couldn't quite matter, why give it a thought?
Because wherever I'm going, I really am not.

Oh this is confusing, this Land of Reverse
Where first is last and last is first.
Although it makes sense, I don't understand.
An explanation is needed from the hand- standing man.

Wherever he is, he plainly won't be,
I will look without looking, and wait for him to find me.
And when he finds me, there will be no doubt.
Because not finding anything, is what finding's about.

Going nowhere fast, on only one hand,
I slowly caught up to the hand-standing man.
I said outside-inside-outside-in?
Perhaps you can tell me where I have just been?

Listen to me, forget every word,
What you are hearing can never be heard.
You've gone without going, (Pardon me, have we met?)
You've seen many things without seeing them yet?
Did you forget to remember this simple thought?
Wherever you're going you really are not.

I looked in his ears, yelled in his eyes,
Shook one of his feet and said my goodbyes.
I climbed in a window, and found myself out,
Of a familiar place I knew nothing about.

Nothing was backwards, Nothing had changed
It was looking quite normal and not rearranged.

So I shut my eyes, I shut them tight.
Went ten miles left, and ten miles right.
I let my mind wander, I dived in head first.
And fell asleep dreaming of The Land of Reverse.

copyright©1987 Revised 2008