Dream Deferred

by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

   Or does it explode?

Dream Deferred? Mine is more like Dreams Deferred. I've got a lot of those. 


Why deferred? Also a lot of reasons. Duties in the family, work, health, lack of muse, lack of time, so on.
So what did I do? 

One of those dreams, I smoothed my hand on it, neatly arranged it on a corner of a table, promising myself to attend to it soon. That soon never came. Later, that dream carefully went inside the drawer.  Later still, more dreams came on top of the first one inside the drawer. Until the drawer held too much of them they had to be transferred to the closet and then eventually ended in a box at the attic. 


Eventually, there came an opportunity for a general house cleaning. And the said dream was taken out of its hiding place. But then instead of having it freed, it was placed in the box labeled "discards". It eventually landed on the pile that might meet fate with a match.Or maybe the pile that might again find another place in the storeroom.
Well, it's still there somewhere. Waiting...