Abandoned Dream

Can you tell me the wages
Of an abandoned dream?
Is it despair or rage? Or
Is it a muffled scream?

Frozen in the throat
It petrifies the tongue,
Turns mouth into a moat
Shoots arrows through the lung,

Then it contorts intestines -
Guttural rending pain -
Cramps muscles up, and next it
Sclerotifies the brain -

Bites into hips and rear
Turns into bricks the thighs
Reaches into the ear
And comes out of the eyes

Freezes the toes and fingers
Sends shivers up the skin 
Whereupon it lingers
Until it wears it thin -

Why can't you scream out loud?
It is because nerves fray
Trying to contain the crowd
Of words you cannot say,

It is because time-master
Conspires to strike you dumb
And with each year beats faster?
- Do not just be, become,

Turn into something, somehow,
Turn into something quick,
Make the life happen now,
Make of you what you seek,

And if you find it missing -
All that you thought you'd be -
Turn it into a kiss, and
Give it all up to me.