Shadow of a Dream
By Vané Alasse

I live the shadow of a dream,
A tinkling brook, a flowing stream,
I've known no life but this mirage:
Beguiling fantasy's facade.

From where I stand all seems the same
The flowers wake, then dying fade,
Each day a mist of faded fire;
What will my languished soul inspire?

If here on earth I'm bound to roam,
If this must be my land, my home
Beneath the jeweled canopy
Of heaven's great cacophony,

Then is it wrong for me to wish
To leave it all behind and kiss
The faded brow now frozen stone
And face my destiny alone?

Might there be something far beyond
The listless twilight's swirling song?
Can there be joy across the waves;
Is that the life my spirit craves?

I lived the light and now I pay
With tightened silence, ocean spray,
The aching of my mind that pulls
Toward the screaming of the gulls.

They cry to me, I know they must;
They see me suffer and distrust
Their better knowledge of my plight,
They bid me follow and take flight.

I must now leave behind the dark,
The stinging black, the bitter spark
Of life without my dearest love
And seek the shelter far above.

I close my eyes, my time has come,
And as I fade, so fades the sun.
I lived the winter of a dream
And now I wait the dawning spring.