The Comfort of the Dream

What is lost,
when we wake up,
is the comfort
of the dream.

We were lulled,
as we grew up,
with the sweet myths
of all the virtues
that the world we saw
was swaddled in,
blinding us, as well,
to its inherent vices.

And here we are,
bathed in the blinding light
of a million painful truths,
squinting past the glare
of our uglier side,
straining to see
the subtler shades
of our inherent beauty.