I. Innocence II. Cold Daze The coldness of confusion Hangs in the morning air as Brazen bells ring reality To announce the conqueror dawn Removed from nights fleeting trance Plunged headlong into cold days Where in a circle we wander The barren wastes of our pasts III. Daylight Dreamers Daylight dreamers awaken on Deserts of desperation Lonely lives learn to live on Islands of isolation Surrounded by violent oceans Of hate and hopeless sorrows Daylight dreamers envision Tranquil seas in save tomorrows Dreaming through the darkened day Along tempest torn strands Desperately grasping the grains Of hope that flit through our hands As they fall we tighten our hold While the waves claim the final few Taken without ceremony They drift out of view Washed away with the tides of time Slipped through our fingers as dreams do IV. Quietus From sleeping visions Daily were torn In waking hours Hopes are forlorn Is all we do and all we dream Doomed to drown in a hopeless stream? Wishing life were made of lasting visions In eternal sleep And if that rest were filled with sorrow Still we'd sleep In the madness of a silent eternity We'd find solace in False visions that protect us From reality Enter ivory gates through midnite skies Daylight dreamers in private parades Perform before perpetual dawn As dusk engulfs the gate of horn. Ivory towers appear beyond the gate Invisible fortressess of escape Traversed by ramparts made of hopes and fears Impervious to reality V. Ivory Tower Behind sullen doors Untouched within Safe from summer storms And winter winds Relentless tempests Can weaken walls Towers falter when Reality calls Untouchable by all without Lost in the silken web youth may weave Tangled threads seem a stronghold But illusions can deceive A cold daze plagues the air Driven by aging winds The walls give way to the rush And let reality in VI. Whispers on the wind Misty morning on a windswept plain Embers of a fortress all that remain The seeds of life that burned within Have flown like whispers on the wind From the sleepers world I look towards darkening skys Through the violet haze of summer storms The sun leaves tired eyes VII. Acquiescence Betrayed by innocence Deceived by delusions Plagiarized promises Pale into empty hopes Ivory towers bow down In reference to daylight As dreamers awaken In sleepers somber shade Ocean waves shift leaving Only memories Final traces of hope Are swallowed in the deep Despair sends a certain calm A vague sense of relief Released from all our longings Silently we'll sleep Hope leads to quiet desperation When reality obscures the dream Makes the mind a grave of memories That wander like the lonely breeze Whose whispers echo through ruins rust Of towers torn and dreams turned to dust VIII. Retrospect