Dorm Room Dreams

What ever happened to our dorm room dreams
That we collected in a pile on the carpet-covered concrete floor?
The circle of cards not yet broken,
The whole night,
Our whole lives
Ahead of us still.

Our cheeks flushed with potential,
We drink from our cans of hope and ambition.
Here’s to us.
And what we will invariably become.

And we wake up in 100 tomorrows
The hangover sitting heavy on our eyelids
In our throats
In our stomachs
As we mix a miracle elixir
Of practicality and financial obligation
To get us through another day of
The distance between
Conception and achievement.

At what point do we accept
That this is no longer a liminal space
And start to move our furniture in here?
Maybe, we begin to convince ourselves,
It’s okay to not strive
And to settle into satisfaction.

How long can I stay up all night dreaming
And spend all day wondering what the dreams are for?
I chase a shot with idealism at midnight.
And flavor my coffee with realism at dawn,
Holding tight to my dorm room dreams still,
Because when they’re gone,
All that’s left are the
What Ifs and doubts behind me
And restless resignation ahead.