You look at the world as it is
and you see it
in just that same way, but I
am not so lucky.
I am cursed
to see the world that is not.

I see the way things could have been
and could someday be
if we all go a different way.
I see the potential we have squandered
and continue to squander.
I see the half-full glass
and know there could have been
a gigantic telekinetic decanter
filled to the brim with eight times the liquid caramel
just ready to be poured into my willing mouth.
Half-full glass of water; who cares about that?
I see the true tragedy:
an absence of caramel.

We are not supposed to live like this.
There is a better world we are missing
a world lost to imagination.
We had chances for heaven on earth
but we greedily lost them all
to the hope of a better brand of pork rinds.

What can we do?
How can we regain the nirvana
we never got to experience?
How can I make you see
what you’re missing
– what we all are?
How can anyone fix
what they don’t understand is broken?

Shit, this version of reality
is so damned depressing.
Am I a pessimist
for seeing this sorry state
or an optimist
because I know so exactly
just what it should really be?