A part of me.

When the world feels too loud,

I close my eyes and dream.

I feel as if the entire world

were closing up on me.

It hurts, to dream sometimes,

for reality shows in the best moment of fantasy.

They say growing up is putting away those dreams,

and embracing reality.

But what if I don’t want to?

What if my dreams are my reality,

the way I am, the way I want to be,

what if they are me, and I am them.

What if taking those dreams away

means I am no longer who I used to be,

but some new version of myself

who has no empathy.

What if destroying those small still places in myself

means that I lose myself?

Lose who I could have been, what if—

If growing up is giving in to reality,

to the fact that I can no longer dream,

Or laugh,

Or play,

Or read in reckless abandon while time flies by,

What if I would rather stay lost.