Poems of a lighthearted nature

You can(not) be 'anything'

They say "You can be anything"

but this isn't strictly true

and until the day I turn into a lemon

I'll go on thinking the way I do

There's only one president at one time

so no, not 'anyone' gets the chance

and I couldn't achieve an ambition in which

I went back in time and was born in France

I'm never going to be a hobbit

or an alien, which is fine by me

but why give me false hope? When you know that in truth

I'll never wake up as a chimpanzee

I can only ever be a metaphorical star

which frankly is no way near the same thing

and given that I'm female, as well as not royalty

I'd say it's improbable that I'll be king

I won't be a zombie or The Hulk

I can't be a chair or a dinosaur

Are you beginning at least to believe

that "You can be anything" is folklore?

So keep your ambitions, by all means dream

but please occasionally use your brain

because striving to be a salted pretzel

is both impossible and insane.