The sound of chaos is one you know well,
And yet you always had a story to tell,
To delight the ears and eyes of the child
It seems I once was.

You marched in circles unseen,
Never afraid to hide behind a costume,
A picture, a foreground, even though
The spell was cast by your hand.

Like Planck’s constant or
The speed of light, you were universal
In the world into which I was born,
Teaching me and countless others to
Embrace our differences and
Find our own ways in the world.

The name that never fails to amuse,
Even now, is wonderfully appropriate
In ways I did not see until it was
Too late and you had hung up your wand
Forever.

Little did I know that your greatest
Trick was immortality: you conjured
Memories into the minds of millions,
And so you live on when your songs
Seep through nostalgia into
The consciousnesses you helped to shape.

07/01/2020

Author's Note: For Neil Innes, 1944-2019.

Posted on 07/07/2020
Copyright © 2024 Richard Vince