We Must Give Up the Dream

That song that you made up in your own head
takes on a new life if- you can one day hear it
really playing out loud instead

To the taking in of all the beauty of a lake
despite all it’d been built up to be
you must be there to see what nature can make

The time, the work, the stress required just to capture
that degree or vocation- will always outmatch
the childhood daydreaming of the stature

The planning and the plotting in order to make yield
acceptance as a Marine- never could substitute
for all the fear felt on a battlefield

The expectation of: your own child’s innocence discerned
or their precious feathered hair- fails to compare
to their actual, true tenderness; unconditional love returned

Visualizing walking hand-in-hand in meadow sweet
cannot rival the actuality of taking
those very steps with our own feet

To knowing well and anticipating that very day you die
it surely can’t replicate that feeling
of finally departing your body–to fly

Life won't always be how it would seem
as we live, learn, listen, love and leave
But when we encounter the real thing we give up the dream