Childhoodaspirations fade with time. Once, I wanted to be an astronaut, but now, I don'tknow what I want. My dreams have changed. I can't complain. I chose them, nowfrozen and unable to come true, nor remembered in my sleep. No longer deep butshallow, no longer solid but hollow, echoing the words of others. Be a doctor, alawyer, someone else's dreams. Not mine, maybe at one time, but no longer.Unafraid but not fearless, sad and sorrowful, yet tearless. I sit and ponder,stand and wonder; what does my future hold? The story unfolds as it goes orarrives, if you will. I sit still, waiting, anticipating, hating that my hopesand wishes never came true.

My penny was lost in the fountain of youth,naïveté. Whoever thought dreams could become reality was wrong.There's no love song, no wrongs righted, we stand united but divided by thebarriers of skin, race and intelligence. Preference of one over another. Wediscover as time goes on that we are not the chosen ones. Someone else, somewhereelse was more right. So far I've discovered that growing up does not always bringwisdom. To a few it does but not when it comes to me.

What about you?Do you feel wiser now than you did back then, back when you were free to dreamabout the stars? When there were no walls to block you in, stop you, hold you,keep you in and locked away? Locked in; no longer a dreamer but an insomniac,going back a ways, the rain came and washed away my childhood. Thoughts gone butfrom now on, I remember the days of old when everything glittered in gold, notcold but warm and bright in the sun. There was fun and adventure, goodness, good,back to the days of my childhood so I can be a dreamer again.