American Dream: a poem

American Dream

When I was younger

all I wanted was a silver perch

I never asked for gold

Still—it was promised

Work receive work recieve

a grand charade with idle fruits

Don’t twist your ankle they’d say

That'll cost your arm and your leg

The price tag of freedom

So I walk delicately, quietly and always in line

Conspiring against myself

with every step

The proposed solution—debt

The proposed perspective—myopia

The proposed partner—comparison

And so the thief of joy moved in on the first

slept on the couch 

and never paid rent

*

Still, I was given a manual

Others‚ a small brochure

Most, a paper napkin and pen

When that great inequity revealed itself

And I wielded comparison against the machine

Gravity pulled me in two directions

In knowing—I was grounded 

In feeling—I was lifted

In fighting—I was suspended in air

*

Somewhere, there’s a jade staircase

That leads to nowhere

Often I think—anywhere but here

But there will be no crusade towards the sky

Not while the pen is dry

And the napkin tattered

I will wrestle with the nightmare

until it tires of its aimless harm

If that is the only way to truly dream

And someday when our lines are replaced with love

We’ll lay in the warm afterglow of the hard day’s work

A distinct and impenetrable peace

Like moonlight on sand.