Poof!

They say we can be whatever we want
But what happens when you’re a little girl
And all you want to be is a cupcake
What happens when you’re fifty with a family and a mortgage
And all you want to be is a farmer
What happens when you’re nineteen in college and all you want to be is
All you want to be is

They say if you do something you love you’ll never work a day in your life
But what happens when you work every damn day?
fixated with every little move across that checker board to success
You begin to forget what you love,
Forget who you were and become infatuated with-- King Me!
What happens when they pull your dreams down
Bundle them up and tell you to swallow
Taken like medicine we obey
Choking and gasping one every three months
In case we forget that our dreams are poof!
Like the unattainable fantasy they are

Toppled from their pedestal
These treasured aspirations are
Shoved under a chemistry microscope
Pushed into a Psychology experiment
And poof! come out a lawyer
Full suit stitched with regret and tied with a life forgotten

I want to be inspired
Feel my destiny creep up my back and cover me in confidence
But I’m still bare
Eating my own bread crumbs
I’m Poof! disappearing in the woods
When all I want is a spot at the table
My nametag on the desk with my pencil shavings falling to the floor
I was special once
They say I had it all figured out
I was ready to see the choices and make my mark
But I tripped
I stumbled
Like suede in rain
ruined
I saw the lineup and I was too nervous to place my bet
My hand trembled and my finger was a scale that couldn’t pick a weight
Never final poof!, never decisive poof!


They say you need to pursue your passion
But what happens when you want to change the world but you can’t find the foot hole to start the climb?
Your mountain is endless and your opportunities there
But you can’t catch your breathe let alone a chance
You’re buried in your fear packed in by your panic
And your heart that is dragging your limbs toward where you should be
Kidnapped by your mind, shoved into a sack and told to find
a real job
Get a parking space
with your name on it,
reading--coward

They say we can be whatever we want
But what happens when your twenty-two graduating from college and all you want to be
Is heard.
Poof!