Principal Boy
At her very first entrance she outshines All the sycophants and spivs She strides with tall ease on a stage that looks manageable now Its agoraphobic wastes seem amenable to reason We see there's a bold young man to the rescue who is also A daring resourceful girl She can act like a tough brave boy and be dashing and strong But will never never surely be loutish or rough So she's Brother and Sister at once and can Remember the little things and be Mother as well But she's handsome Brother entirely courting the Princess And for all of the time whenever she speaks and sings Her role is supposed to have nothing to do with sex You may only purely admire her no other emotion It is not to be even a distant aseptic love You could never forget a kiss and yet never desire her If a sultan or vizier shouts or a genie shows bottle She looks scared like a woman but that is only pretence She's gallant and good in every turmoil or scrape It's just that she doesn't want to seem superhuman Supremely she disentangles the threads in all the plotting If there's villainy in the way she propels it aside We walk with her unharmed through the thickets of childhood fear We always knew she was destined to win the day And then at last yes the walls lift and fold back and she shows us The hills and the sun when the whole dim scene is transformed She is puffing us up for the world outside the Exits Where we have to face up to the Fact That Life Has Begun We remember and worship her legs in the homegoing tram She is out there imperishable somewhere in the dark She is watching and waving and smiling and saying 'Be strong! Shall you look on my works you meek ones and despair?'
Alan Brownjohn
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