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"

Music © Mine Music Ltd./EMI Japan Publishing/lyric © Rude Girl Publishing. All rights reserved; int’l copyright secured. Used by permission.