In the continuing series dedicated to and at the request of my adored oldest daughter, we continue at the Twilight Zone, Season 1: Episode 24:

People Are Alike All Over
by Michael Romani

In that place between science and superstition
There is a tale of a trip with Mars as destination
Two men stare out at their pending transportation
Caught up on two sides of considered contemplation
One man possesses a dreamer's smile of optimism
The other is lost in fear and dreaded pessimism

The dreamer believes all people are similar to each other
That wherever they are found; they're like one another
Flimsy, little, two legged men with smallish heads
The fearful one lingers on what's been said
Man unshackles himself from Earth grasping out into space
Destination Mars - and these are the ambassadors of our race

There in a crash landing on the planet's reddish surface
Marccuson sadly looks into death's tragic, dejected face
Any landing you can walk away from is counted a good one
But even the optimist realizes he has alas been undone
Tap-a-tap-rapping comes from the ship's metal hull
Marcusson pleads his dying curiosity despite fractured skull

Busted up inside, he still wants to see what's outside
While the fearful man - he only wants to hide
Marcusson begs to see what exactly he is dying for
The fearful man refuses to open up that protective door
The minds and hearts of people are pled as coupled to souls
And people are alike all over, even in Martian holes

Marcusson fades, bleeding out into his final adventure
While the fearful man trembles at every sign of nature
Finally opening up the door; he finds a quiet, gentle race
With similar bodies and likenesses of all too familiar faces
Speaking through what is found to be unconscious transference
Languages and peaceful grace greet him on this first appearance

There before him, he could not help but notice finding
That people were the same as an echo ever reminding
A final farewell as Marcusson is taken off in sadness
Little does he know that he'll soon descend into madness
A beautiful lady lends him peace in her gentle appearance
Urging him to let go of his final and last defense

Ushered into a replica of home, sweet, home
He finds comfort in feeling he will never be alone
It's home again, home again to the very last detail
Giving him pleasure with it's initial comforting feel
Sitting in his illusion and enjoying his drink
Then suddenly it is the little things that make him think

The illusion gives way as does the simplistic façade
The acts of gentle caring had only been a fraud
As he pulls away the exhibit's velvet curtain
He finds that he has been taken for certain
Finding himself behind a barred zoo like cage
As he finds a placard and reads the words on the page

Seeing those who had faked their comforting of him
His hope grows ever fainter until it's light is dim
He howls out into the vast, emptiness of the night
Enraged voiced in a scream - Marcusson had been right
It was more than any man could have handled sober
Yes, people were, indeed, the very same all over

Seething in a sad sort of hopeless sense of rage
His hands on the bars of his new home - the cage
A species so similar and miraculously kept alive
Possibly the very last of its kind to survive
Now displayed as an earth creature in his native habitat
With all the comforts of a twilight home - for all of that

(c) July 8, 2017  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved