I don’t know that I expected more,

I don’t feel as if I’ve failed.

And yet, it seems life just slipped by

The ship of dreams has sailed.

Instead of using grief to change,

A wake-up call from the pain.

It’s like it’s just beyond my reach,

A childish fantasy, I can’t attain.

I’ve wasted yet another hour,

The clock became my enemy.

My dreams became a hostage,

With a hefty ransom fee.

It seems so daunting, just too hard,

To make real changes in mid-life.

Much easier to stay the course,

To just dream less and sacrifice.

But if I choose not to make a choice,

If I stay here as life goes by,

Will I only wake up at life’s end,

Knowing that I never tried?

Or is real wisdom only found

When you look back and finally see,

Your dreams were not life’s prize at all,

But the love you shared when on that journey.

 

By Vicki L. Pugliese