I rue those nights I’d slept,
and wakened from a dream
in which I could have wept
from loss of self-esteem.
But I woke up restored
to all I’d left behind
when I – in sleep, unmoored –
sailed seas my fancy mined
with thoughts of ruin and theft.
But pity dreamers docked
at havens they’ve since left
for quarters where they’re mocked
inside the prison cell
they wake up in pell-mell.