Sonnet IV (If I Shall Wake)

Photography by Alec Holtforster

Am I now old, or yet young, presently,
When wary at life’s crossroads I do stand?
Dreams and fantasies at my full command,
If I shall wake, from waking reverie.
Though I accept what Time may serve to me,
The past marked firm as if with searing brand,
On what’s to come, I may still yet expand,
And steer this course without old apathy.
Wake! Destiny is not set in its course,
That you and I should settle with dismay.
Let us our joinéd happiness enforce,
To taunt fortune, capricious fate assay;
Let no rude qualm breed pitiful remorse!
Our quest, our liberty, begins today