A Hole in the World

The world closes in,
Buries you
In the weight of
Everything.

All those promises,
Lies
To the child:
"You can grow up to be anything you want."

How about Happy?
I didn't think so.
How about wealthy?
Not likely.

You press the campaign forward,
Leaving the bodies of your dreams
Littering the battlefield,
Advancing purposefully
On the Six-foot Trench
That is your goal.

Yes, you can be anything you want.
You can do anything you want.
As long as what you want is what you get.

Yet even as you crawl through the mud,
Exchanging free will
For food and shiny things,
All you really want
Is another chance:
A portal,
A gate,
A passage to another place.

A place
Where dreams aren't dead,
And you can still fly too close to the sun.