A Feast of Daydreams

The sun loiters on my bare feet
Easing tensions unseen but by heartstrings
In the sizzling silence of summer
My mind sautés an enticing trance
Delicately squeezing the fresh fruit of old hope
Like plump pages from diaries unwritten
These unplayed futures ever condemned by clockwise clocks
But backwards logic winds them true
The sights in front of me glaze out of focus
All else fades to imagination’s content
First courses of edited memories wet my lips
Served with a small side of satisfaction
Poorly spliced films recreate pasts for ovations
The why-didn’t-I’s stand for an encore
This sunlit murder of my personal chronicles
Brings surprisingly subdued peace
The contrary nature of regret stews optimism in its stead
Hope challenges history in roman arenas
While a stadium of watching maybes grows anxious
Thumbs up
Thumbs down
The what-if’s win the vote
Starvéd resentments slaughter decisions long lamented
While unleashed tigers eat screaming truths off the floor
Licking the residue of fact from their paws
My mind lights a fire for the second course
Matches struck shine on a makeshift tomorrow
Poorly constructed by needles with closed eyes
Flames kindle the banquet and show savory vapor
Spilling over soup bowls of why-not
The never-say-never’s grilling warm to medium rare
Under the watchful eyes of the I-should’ve’s
The third course is presented
In this reverie like dinner ordered by remorse
Seasoned by tempting toxic comfort
Filling dreams during daylight
The restless tigers ruthlessly guarding the cogs
Which wind backwards against their will
My mind rushes its manufactured meal
Feverishly serving fragile dessert plates
Pastries filled with and-then-I and that-would-mean
The sweetness is unbearable
Vain hope leading me to a fool’s paradise
But this accelerated meal of thought steams to a halt
Like a teapot nimbly removed from flames
A bittersweet wind of fresh cut grass returns my senses
Reason turns the tigers into clawed tufts of smoke
Vanquishing the dreams to which they gave sanctuary
The sun still loiters on my bare feet
A moment lost but no sustenance gained
Like ransomed scars my memories sink back into my mind
My heart reconciles itself with what’s been done to it
I hear my clock ticking steadily forward.