Commentary on A Dream Deferred: A Truly Random Thought.

I don't know why this crossed my mind but...

What actually happens to a dream deferred? Langston Hughes once asked this question; he asked a few questions really.

A 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?

 What happens when someone is told they can't? When they try as hard as they know how, and fail? When it seems that every door is closed and they can find no way out? What happens when their dream is deferred? Humans are born innately resilient; we are instinctively designed to survive. If attacked we defend ourselves, if in trouble we help ourselves, if hurt we console ourselves. As a race and I mean human, the definition of “race” today is a baseless biological distinction, but I digress, we have gotten over and through SO much. Thousands of years of slavery, genocides, famines, earthquakes, hurricanes, death, despair, depression, there is literally no end to what we have endured and continue to endure. So why would we watch our dreams, our goals, our wants and needs go unfulfilled without trying to figure out a way to achieve them? Look at the word that Langston Hughes used: deferred.  To defer means to put off to a later time; to postpone. He didn’t ask what happens to a dream eliminated, or a dream eradicated. He knew that even if we could not achieve our dream then, at some point it would be realized. Hughes makes it seem as if the dream dies; as if it slips away passively and noiselessly, drifting into obscurity as the person who created it moves on. But I beg to differ. When a dream must be put aside, it doesn’t go quietly; it boils beneath the surface waiting for its chance. It sits at the back of your mind, making sure it is not forgotten. It whispers to you in your sleep, wrapping around your thoughts and making its presence felt. I think it is an ember in your soul, seemingly gone, but not quite out, biding time until it can become a righteous flame again.

A Dream Deferred

By Taylor-Rae Collins-Headley

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it burn

Behind the eyes like the sun?

And fight

Until the battle is won?

Does it churn

 Beneath the surface with passion and heat?

For it knows

Neither surrender nor defeat?

Maybe it rises

Like a phoenix in flight.

Waiting to ignite.