Murdering Dreams Poem by Lonnie Hicks

When no one is looking
I count the steps
in front of my house
no reason apparent.

I linger in front of photographs
that resemble you
and I allow
cruelly
the contrast
between you
and my present life.

Disappointment
is harder to bare sometimes
in real life
catapulting us
to alternative realities
concocted by our mourning minds
which seek those media dreams
of the perfect life
of escape from the flesh and blood realities
surrounding us
introducing to us
dripping disappointments
in self, others and family.

How guilt-dripping is this dynamic
where reality is seen to be
cruelly oppressive
compared to those media visions
concocted for us
by movies and tv.

Murdering false dreams
is what, therefore, the children
must do
in order to grow up
and become part of humanity.

Otherwise
a grieving shadow
that seeks that happily ever after
becomes a mind dripping
of false realities.