If one must choose

Between dream world and day world,

Between the factual that dissolves in thought

Or fantasies that harden into shapes

More bright than bronze,

I will accept the latter and deny

All that projects upon the eye

Inconsequential forms.

In sleep we meet ourselves,

Not as we are,

But as we might have been

If those we chose as parents were more wise,

And those who taught us spoke like Socrates.

Here we are free

To take that other path and still achieve

The multicoloured garments of desire.

May 1968