Echoes of Another Life

A Poem

Photo by Nataliia Rabinovych on Unsplash

if you whisper just long enough,
then maybe worlds will fashion
at your fingertips

but life’s not so simple
that spells come out at leisure
in a gauze of serendipity

some days, it’s harder
to come out in daylight
while clinging to midnight

and fairy tales begin like this —
that heralded once upon a time —
the make or break of dreams

but the prince is late
while the princess saves herself
and the dragon becomes the antihero

there’s no knight-in-shining-armor here —
just sad, broken molds of what could have been
long before the tales grew old and stale and crumbled

if you daydream just long enough,
you might be able to breathe life into the tale
before it leaves a bitter aftertaste, sour to the tongue

but life’s a game, you know,
and there are winners and losers in every corner —
and this life was not made for everyone to be champions