That Great Escape (Poetry)

I imagine there’s a room somewhere
where someone reads... and reads... and reads...
and lives the life they would have lived
if fate and time had been more kind.
They disappear into a world
where fantasy enthralls the mind
through words — mere words — created by
the storyteller’s magic art.

Those books of spells hold every dream
and free the spirit trapped within
some dreary place — a lonely cell —
long, humdrum, soulless days walled-in
by dull reality — its weight
like chains that fetter every thought
until a new tale is begun —
the cover lifted — the first page
a window on some distant view
that lures — magnetic, gleams like new
and voices welcome all who come
to visit here and rest awhile...

The earth, the sea, the moon, the stars
the universe itself unrolls
and nothing seems impossible —
there are no limits — nothing ends
no rules in fiction — it allows
all things to happen as it wends
its virtual journey — leading where
the reader has a heart to go.

That heart will follow willingly
the trail a caring writer weaves
and seek adventure — romance — love
in timeless lands of make-believe.
If just one reader finds release
in such a tale — some brief respite
from grief or worry in the gloom
of life’s retreat — its grey-lit room
allowed to air — let fancies skip
lightfooted as quiet drifts of ink...
Then vision’s shared — that great escape
runs its true course — enchantment waits.