To Dare to Dream

To live is to feel, to feel is to bleed.
Dreams bypass life, give lie to feelings.
Help to escape, a means to cope.
But dreams aren't life.  Life is not a dream.
Can I dream my life away?
Or failing that, live as though it were a dream?
I used to dream of sails
Of honour, of chivalry, heraldry, travails
Then I dreamed of love, life and love.
Ah, to love, to have one's heart realized, fulfilled.
To dream thus, the reason for love we often bond
But to speak to love, to yearn for love's close touch,
Her soft embrace, her gentle smiles, her gleeful play.

Then it's gone.  Love had been a lie, merely a waking dream.
To dream it was, it is not but could be again.  To hope and to dream.
Should we risk it, my soul and I?  The pain is great, the danger present,
but the reward?  Oh 'tis said 'tis grand, a many splendor'd thing.
But to my mind that brings an image
glittering facets, like knives flying through the air, catching the light,
streaking through sunbeams, aiming for my heart.

Oh!  Piercing, pain.  to love is to open to hurt, we need trust in love.
but love trusted, unreturned, unthinking, can hurt, so very much pain.
How to manage, the chaos, the hurt, the recriminations?
How to manage the day, tears burn, breath chokes, could this be the end,
Love was a dream, was it also a lie, or can we save it?
Like the bullet riddled man on the surgeon's table, maybe.

We can try.  I must try.  For this is the last one.
To fail is to remain alone.  No more trying.
The hurt is fleeting, the damage less so.
I cannot, I dare not venture forth again with heart in hand.
Too much pain in chance, too much hurt in somebody who says one thing, does another.
Who claims one thing, and demands another.

Crap, life is hard.
But I guess it's better than the alternative,
Or is it?

Andre