When the stars fell, mother
I was fast asleep.
I dreamt the sky rained sugar
and yellow jelly beans.
The heavens' vaults were emptied,
but this I did not see.
In your arms I slumbered,
imagining fancifully.

Through the night, dear mother,
faries skipped about,
Frolicing through raindrops,
dancing on soft clouds,
A whirlwind of silver,
swirl of amber shroud;
The universe was brilliant,
jubilant and loud.

Atop the hills of emerald
sat prodigously a flower
swathed in tiny leaves of green,
it exerted a mighty power.
The sky was made of taffy sweet
that I wished to devour.
Every rainbow was a rainbow,
every tree a tower.

A wonderland, an Eden,
this earth had become.
No need to worry or to fear;
All things bad undone.
Joy is reality; the hours passed in fun.
We lept, so full of vigor,
my best memories hard won.

When I woke dear mother, my dreams fled from the sun,
driven like sheep to the pasture before the day begun.
Startled like a doe,
alert and on the run,
pushed aside like nighttime shadows,
my fanciful thoughts were done.

As I grasped in vain for this dream that made me smile,
I feel it slipping away
inch by foot by mile.
Straining for my fading thoughts,
failing all the while:
"Bring them back here, mother!"
"They're already gone, my child."