The building

I trudge in this slippery slope of rhymes;
Could choose a freer verse, but I did not. 
Seven different rules, seven different times, 
A fortnight's hard work till the wall is wrought. 
I smile every day, if it helps me dream,
But this stuff alone is not enough to
Desist the nightmare's formidable scream
And the purplish stretch of the wishful rue. 
So a lil' wonderful despair I keep
Nigh the base of this wall, secured only
By the depth of my hope, which remains deep 
With all its empty possibility.
And there, sleep by sleep I select my curse—
A mason of dreams—a prison of verse!

Dale Chou
2010-08-09