Perception

When Alfred Stone was 9 years old
He was afraid to go bed.
The blackness that engulfed his room
Just filled him up with dread.

The darkness, he feared,
was full of things, that children should not see.
Monsters, ghouls and foul creatures,
from which he could never flee.

Then one day, in his teenage years,
Led on a dark and grassy moor,
Alfred gazed up at the stars,
And was drawn by their allure.

He replaced the stars with people,
fighting against the tide, 

To be seen to shine so brightly,

And it filled him up with pride.

Alfred wished to catch a star,

Right there upon that hill.

So he swung a rope around the moon,
- it is rumoured it’s there still.

As legend goes, on that very spot,

If a person is of true heart,

They can pluck a star out of the sky,

And that’s only just the start!

But one must be carefully how they use,

This gift of fame or glory,

For not everyone can have a perfect,

Happy ending story.

Alfred Stone was young and pure,

As you would never find him now,

So wish wisely upon that lonely hill

Or you will perhaps discover how…

A boy with so much talent,

though lost as he had seemed,

Sees nothing now but darkness,

in a dream that cannot be.

In his room he sits alone,

Curtains drawn to keep out light,

Older now and much more worn,

Too busy wanting to shine,

That he forgot to live at all.

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- Jayne