In Corporate Light

A Year of Sonnets — 073/365

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

These vivid dreams will not sustain your bones
beyond the soft electric of your mind.
Though they may be the capital you own
they disappear at dawn: you’re in a bind.

Imagination’s never quite enough
to pay away your debt — the world will take
your grist and marrow, leave your body rough
and battered — take the lovely things you make
and tar them as their own, remove the hue
you spoke into the fabric of their skin
and paint them with a superficial new,
destroying the imperfect grace within.

A single provocation steals your right
to live unfettered, free, in pure delight.