There are a lot of trains

There will come a day
when you look at your dreams
and find you don't know them.

This will be a day, perhaps,
when you say you are living them;
you turn the covers and flick the lights,
and what you see isn't what you thought
you had once imagined, but rather
a memory, fleeing, of living through trials
that always you thought you'd never see.
And these are the things, the survivals,
the setbacks, the blood and tears--
these are the dreams you didn't know,
deeper, stronger, more fulfilling than
the ones you thought you wanted.

Or maybe the day will come
and you'll look out the window and say,
"I have no dreams," because the ones
that buoy your soul and fling you to heaven
seem impossible, unattainable or unreal.
Funnily enough you'll discover the dreams
you never thought you dreamed are
in fact the ones you wanted most,
and that you are living as you think;
the everyday humdrum you want to forget
is its own beautiful, unstoppable adventure.

Or maybe you never did call them dreams,
but rather goals; and having obtained one goal,
set another, until the sky came within reach.
Now, with the sun close to your fingertips,
you find it burns; but the pain drives you more,
because it's not the goal you wanted, but
the struggle of which you dreamed.

Then again, maybe you still have them
the same as they ever were,
putting them away on the "maybe one day" train,
which daily leaves the station, and daily
you watch it go with unshed tears.
These are the dreams that sit so thick,
so solid in your eyes, you cannot see beyond:
the cataracts of the soul, the thick and salty sea.
These are the dreams that hide the dreams
you really ought to know; and when asked
what your dreams are, you'll say, "One day,"
and stand watching a train pull away, as
behind you your real dreams frolic and play,
or bleed and beg and laugh and help you suffer.

There will come a day when,
being asked about your dreams,
you may realize those dreams aren't what
you always thought you should call dreams.
Unplanned dreams, the tears of hearts,
the soul of nurture and the spirit of growth--
the dreams that matter, that few ever call
a dream come true.