Incident Along Fantasy Way 
                           Projections

Last night I went to the Planetarium.
They were doing a travelogue:
"The heavens as seen from Oz, Trantor, Middle Earth,
     Lankhmar, Hollywood,
And other legendary places."
As an added attraction they had images of UFO's:
Lights, disks, streaks, and various other forms
Of mysterious heavenly apparitions.

But something departed from the script --
A spot of light grew and grew and grew 
Until a door opened and a Thing emerged.
"Our home planet is overcrowded," it said,
"And we want you to put a brighter bulb in your projector
To make our world larger and roomier."

"But that would exceed our budget
And besides you don't have tickets."
A bureaucrat forever.

Suddenly, with a flurry of tentacles into a projector
     previously unnoticed,
The attendant was extinguished
And with a quick change of slides
A more cooperative one created.

Request granted, farewell, and off into the artificial night
Leaving me to wonder:
Which projector am I coming from?


                                        Thomas G. Digby
                                        written 0200  8/01/74
                                        entered 1205  4/09/92