I overheard my daughter in a game of pretend,

"Somebody's being mean to imaginary friends!"

She confided this to Jasmine, who nodded like she knew,

so I felt obliged to interject "Where?" and "When?" and "Who?"

They told me how they'd noticed in the days just passed

their imaginary friends were vanishing fast.

One moment you were rocking them to sleep in a pram

then they're stolen by an evil and invisible man.

Then I recollect my own friends who disappeared one summer;

there was Gedder, there was Chunky and Run Johnny Runner.

They had superhuman powers, they could fly, what's more,

they could change their shape and slide beneath our front door.

Gedder ruled the roost in this imaginary crew,

the others were his halfbacks and did what he told them to.

I say his name was Gedder, I confess it with some shame

that I never did discover how to spell his name.

I've googled him, I've sought him out in each search engine;

does Facebook have a group to find imaginary friends in?

Whatever happened to him? Wherever did he go?

Do imaginary friends really have a secret foe?

 

"This is Tia, his daughter, and my best mate Jazzy;

we listened to his story; he's not convinced you, has he?

You think he's written a piece of fiction

to show how innocence ends. 

But we know better, he's looking for Gedder,

and we know what he intends:

He wants the bastard who has captured his imaginary friends!

He wants the bastard who has captured his imaginary friends!

He wants the bastard who has captured his imaginary friends..."