Dear Peter

Dear Peter,

Don't you know?
The pictures beneath your lids
are just swirls of color mixed into darkness.

It's not real you know.

The beautiful mermaids, the dreadful pirates,
the water that sparkles like a million stars.

It's not real.

Not Tiger Lily and her pretty hair,
not Captain Hook, or your favorite crocodile.
Not even Tinker Belle, and all her fabulous sass.

Oh Peter I know you know,

that none of these hallucinations
can erase the tears of the lonely boys,
who live with the horrific fear of growing up.