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BALLADE OF A DREAM ADDICT, by                    
First Line: I have no will to weep if love should leave
Last Line: The drug of dreams will ever ease the heart.
Alternate Author Name(s): O'neill, Virginia Scott
Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares


I have no will to weep if love should leave,
No wish to wear the scar of memory's brand
Upon my heart. For mind will interweave
The past with dreams, and fabricate a band
Of shimmering fancies following my command;
Empowered to heal the wound with subtler art
Than hot desire inspired within some gland.
The drug of dreams will ever ease the heart.

I have no will to tug at fortune's sleeve,
No wish to break the soil of arid land --
Or grope in office gloom -- and so receive
The right to jingle silver coins in hand.
An hour of solitude! -- and thoughts expand
To gather treasure unknown to public mart;
A purchase poverty cannot countermand:
The drug of dreams will ever ease the heart.

I have no will to struggle -- climb -- achieve --
No wish to build in steel, or tunnel sand,
For hands are prone to blunder. Dreams conceive
The perfect races -- alter maps -- demand
The world shall wear a face benign and bland.
I fumble facts, but never lose the chart
Which leads me toward this self-created strand.
The drug of dreams will ever ease the heart.

Envoi

Oh, God! In illusion born of mist I stand;
Engulfed -- embalmed in wishes -- set apart
By knowledge, poison-filled, and contraband:
The drug of dreams will ever ease the heart.





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