The Dream

“Step carefully,” the boy cried 

to the old man at the edge

“There’s a current slow and deep,

it runs under the shallow ledge!”

Floating by, a leaf  

To be plucked into his dream

By the old man now standing there

and staring by the stream

Gazing down, his reflection

all but reflected back,

All the years of plenty

and all the year of lack

Silently he sat, 

his eyes closed

in the dream

and plucked the leaf

from the water

as he slept now by the stream

The leaf became his clipper

It was now the night to sail

To beyond the shores of plenty

out through the raging gale

Now captain of his ship,

he commanded, "boys, sail ahead!"

A young lad took the tiller

and into the dark they sped

The horizon line their destiny

as they rose upon the swell

Imagination their guiding star,

and deeper to sleep he fell

But the small boy reached in 

and plucked him from the stream 

and walked him to the path,

away now from his dream

Together through the wood
the boy took him to the spring,

They sat there by the water

And reflected on the dream. 

Gazing down, his reflection

all but reflected back,

All the years of plenty

and all the year of lack

The horizon was his destiny

He had ridden upon the swell

Imagination his guiding star,

His dreams he could not quell

So the captain stood

and commanded, 

"boy, it’s time to sail ahead!!!"

And the young lad took the tiller

and into the light they sped

~ cb 07/09/11 ~