Dreams & Reality

If I could choose my dreams,
Dreams dreamt with open eyes,
I would dream of vast green fields,
Of turquoise seas and clear blue skies.

A dream of bliss and gaiety,
With a smile for every face,
Each new day of happiness,
Each night, in the lap of grace.

The fields turn to dead desert as I see,
The skies rent with moans and wail,
Pain and anguish stretch to the horizons
The devastation is on an unimagined scale.

The world is down with illness,
The symptoms visible far and wide,
The sand castles of hopes and wishes
Leveled away by the bellowing tide.

As the world is hidden in Shadow,
And Torment smoothly takes its toll,
As my dreams turns to a nightmare,
I wish never to have dreamt at all.

The dream was broken, I was awake,
The frightful scenes still in my eyes,
My hopes that is was just a dream
Dashed by relentless screams and cries.

I closed my eyes with a deep fear,
Afraid of what I would see,
My dream was a dream no more,
It was cold cruel reality.

Curiosity, yet, is stronger still,
And I did open my eyes,
Only to find a still stranger sight,
Under those gloomy skies.

An old man lost in the passage of days
His back bent with years of burden,
Yet with his dim sight and frail hands
He was tending a beautiful garden.

Smile on his lips, twinkle in his eyes,
He merrily toiled away,
In his hands he held a lily,
He said, “It bloomed this very day!”

“I keep up this garden,” he said
“Be it rain or shine.
To fill the world with flowers
Is the dream of mine.”

“Does not this appear to be a folly,
To strive for such impossibility?
There is only so much we can do,
For we are all bound by our ability.”

He smiled at me and replied,
“Your concerns are very kind,
As long as  there is one more bloom
I surely would never mind.”

His words meant more to me
more than he meant them to be.
For if we put our mind to it
Our dreams too can be a reality.