Welcome Home (The Nebulas Song) - Janis Ian

I learned the truth at seventeen

That Asimov and Bradbury

And Clarke were alphabetically

My very perfect ABC’s

While Algernon ran every maze

And slow glass hurt my heart for days

I sat and played a sweet guitar

And Martians grokked me from afar

Odd John was my only friend

Among the clocks and Ticktockmen,

While Anne Mccaffrey’s dragons roared

Above the skies of Majipoor

Bukharan winds blew cold and sharp

And whispered to my secret heart

You are no more alone

Welcome home

Tribbles came, and triffids went

Time got wrinkled, then got spent

Kirinyaga’s spirits soared

And Turtledove re-write a war

While Scanners searched, and loved in vain

Hal Nine Thousand went insane

And Brother Francis had an ass

Whose wit and wile were unsurpassed

Every story I would read

Became my private history

As Zenna’s People learned to fly

And Rachel loved until we cried

I spent a night at Whileaway

Then Houston called me just to say

You are no more alone

So welcome home

Who dreams a positronic man?

Who speaks of mist, and grass, and sand?

Of stranger station’s silent tombs?

Of speech that sounds in silent rooms?

Who waters deserts with their tears?

Who sees the stars each thousand years?

Who dreams the dreams for kids like me

Whose only home is fantasy?

Let’s drink a toast to ugly chickens

Marley’s ghost, and Ender Wiggins

Every mother’s son of you,

And all your darling daughters, too

And when the aliens finally come,

We’ll say to each and every one

You are no more alone

So welcome home

Welcome home