DREAMS

An old song playing in the background
Brings back to life a faded memory
Of a time when I once had a dream
A dream that was shattered by war
Then replaced by a scripted miasma
That was cast upon a vagrant breeze
Bringing only a brief sense of loss

My heart was grasped once again
Happiness held to me a second time
Or so I came to believe as each year
Was followed by another full of joy
Joy that slowly turned to bitterness
Until it too followed a vagrant breeze
Leaving behind a worsening sense of loss

Do I have strength for another dream?
Did that old fortune teller really know
What would befall a life not yet begun
A life that was over while still not
A life where happiness and bitterness
Drift hand-in-hand on a vagrant breeze
Fettered forever by this sense of loss?

Though filled with fear I long to dream
Her meaning was never clear to me
First for pain, second for sadness
Third should finally bring happiness
Could my counting have been so wrong?
Is my answer there on that vagrant breeze?
Am I strong enough to cross that stream?

….Jerry Marks