Dreaming Darkness

By Cliff Lake

 

Dreaming Darkness

 

This cannot be real,

We have fallen into a dream.

This is not reality,

Things are not what they seem.

We have drifted away from the track,

This is the wrong scheme.

We are treading deep water,

Have we lost our paddles to the stream?

 

What storyline is told

By the sneering mouth full of lies?

Are all of these minds so closed

That they cannot pierce the disguise?

Are they so driven to accept

The promise of an unearned prize?

Do they know where we’re headed,

Are they hypnotized?

 

When the nightmare is over,

Will the sun shine a darker hue?

When the dark dream is ended,

Will there be a dimmer view?

When the ordeal is complete,

Will the wages come due?

Will we rise refreshed or,

Will the sun shine a darker hue?

 

We are plunged into this darkened realm.

I tire of this unreality.

Dregs are risen from the bottom,

We bow not to monstrous society.

A trap built of hallucination:

A burden of life by malformed decree.

Lost in dreaming degradation,

We seek release from bleak fantasy.

 

When the nightmare is over,

Will the sun shine a darker hue?

When the dark dream is ended,

Will there be a dimmer view?

When the ordeal is complete,

Will the wages come due?

Will we rise refreshed or,

Will the sun shine a darker hue?

 

Waking life in shades of gray,

Horror over daily life does creep.

A wrongness to fill every day,

A torment of illusion to seep.

In this trial are we to stay?

Have we fallen to phantasm deep?

To wake from this must we pray?

Are we imprisoned in uneasy sleep?

 

When the nightmare is over,

Will the sun shine a darker hue?

When the dark dream is ended,

Will there be a dimmer view?

When the ordeal is complete,

Will the wages come due?

Will we rise refreshed or,

Will the sun shine a darker hue?

 

Cliff Lake 3/21/2026

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2026

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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