Exhausted Dreams

By Russell Willis

Called to dream dreams

falling back on convenient dreams

or comfortable or comforting dreams

or those of the happy-ending sort

What of those exhausted dreams?

the ones demanding sacrifice

the ones we have tired of dreaming

the ones we have dreamed in vain

Perhaps, never fully tested

or even fully dreamed

those exhausting dreams 

now lie exhausted

Until someone revives them, together with others 

not resting until the dreams can rest

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Ethicist and online education entrepreneur, Russell Willis, has published poetry in over 25 print and online journals and fourteen anthologies. Russell grew up in and around Texas, was vocationally scattered throughout the Southwest and Great Plains for many years, and is now settled in Vermont with his wife, Dawn.