Imagination

They say an imagination is beautiful.

It can take you far, far away

to magical lands and fantastic people

who could never exist in your reality.

Maybe it isn’t as far-fetched as a fairy tale--

a concert, an island, a lifestyle altered by one simple change--

But wherever it takes you can be is an escape.

Your own version of reality

can seem so perfect.

They never mentioned that it can be dangerous.

Whatever you can dream up. That’s what imagination is.

It gives you an escape. A place to hope.

What do you do when that hope becomes too real? When you form a dependency?

You can’t go anywhere without an invisible friend.

Without them, reality is

just

too

much.

Note: This is my third entry for the America Library of Poetry's annual student poetry contest (from junior year). It is my third published poem in their anthologies.