~ Reality's Tale ~

Reality told me a story tonight,
It said that only dreamers bleed.
Being a dreamer once, myself,
I listened, my wisdom to feed.

"The trouble with dreamers," it told me,
"Is that all of them choose to be blind.
They ignore the signs I show them,
turn away when my harsh truth they find."

Reality had my attention, and more,
it gained logic's respectful due.
I sat back to ponder and listen again
and the words it spoke rang true.

"You see," it said. "They think with their hearts,
and their clarity of mind becomes lost.
They live with their heads caught up in the clouds,
and never contemplate paying my cost."

"When back to the cold earth they fall again,
they still whine and wonder why
their tender hearts get oh, so broken
and then all they can do is cry."

The last was said with a weary disgust
that mankind should be so naive.
"Then what," I asked, "about Faith and Trust?"
It answered, "Only a way to deceive."

"The truth is never pretty," it sighed.
"But an action will disprove a word."
I sat there listening with a once dreamer's ear,
my heart wishing it hadn't just heard.

I questioned, "Then what of Love and Hope?
Are not these vital ideals real?"
It answered, "Part of reality? Nope!
Just illusions that all dreamers feel."

I frowned in saddened frustration,
wanting to dispute all the things it had said.
My heart was arguing loudly
with the voice inside my head.

The experience Reality had shown me
said that all its words were truth.
Hard wisdom gained had jaded me
and stilled the dreams of youth.

"I don't know all the answers," said I,
as the bloodied Dreamer's teardrops ran.
"I wanted a world where I could have both,
but I don't know that I can."

Taking its leave, Reality spoke,
without turning back, whispered to me.
"When you finally wake from fool's dreaming," it said,
"Then my truth will indeed set you free."
~ C.L.R. ~
© 2004