It appeared to me in a dream
What was it who knows?
Behind its hideous mask the soul of the creature arose
For beneath it somewhere
I could sense a familiar stare
Could it possibly be?
A reminder, a twinkle of hope
In the ocean of thought so remote
So far and yet so near
That I shook and trembled in fear
The mask’s lips slightly moved and a sound
Like the cry of a million trumpets
Like the beat of a million drums
And yet so sullen, so quiet, like a perilous journey begun
“Tell you what…if you dare
I’ll uncover for you-
But beware
For what thou shalt see is the person you once used to be!
It’s the one you summon at night,
When you dream, see your past fall apart,
When you wake and move with a start,
To fulfill that dream you once had,
But the dream isn’t over,
"I haven’t told you what I meant to have said!”
And now a figure appeared
Far, far away, so small
Wanting nothing, nothing at all
It could have the world at its will
And, yet all that it really needed
Was to escape the realms of the dream
I did all I could that night
I begged and I pleaded the right
To wake up, be the man whom I saw
To throw off the chains, set flight
To phantoms unwanted, a painful fight
“I must not waste this chance” I heard myself saying
But every dream must pass,
Go with the last drop of sleep
All I wanted, you see, was to keep dreaming
I dreaded the morning’s bright rays
But what could I do
Nature’s often deceiving
It controls who goes and who stays
Not by death, but by life that’s been broken
Shredded to pieces and torn apart
A life so miraculously given
Yet so easily brought down and trampled
Like a fallen leaf, like a card
In the game we call life.
