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Blinded by the Silver Lining
by Linda J. Thomas

 

Well past middle-age, 
and well past midnight,
the couple shared their dreamy thoughts,
while waiting for sleep's dreams.

It's the job offer of a life time,” he declared.
“Challenging work and at a Fortune 500.”
“No more dot com today,
but gone tomorrow.”

“It will be the best of both worlds,” she said.
“Weekends at our home in the country.”
“Weekdays in a condo in the city.”
“Only a two-hour drive in between.”

The decision made, they slept deeply
in the valleys of their queen size mattress.

In the night their dreams revealed a different story:
The pipes in their country home,
left lonely and abandoned in the winter's cold—
froze, then burst, and cried puddles of disappointment
on the hardwood floors.

The second mortgage on the condo
ballooned and sailed high above their reach,
and one weekend their car broke down on the way home—
Which one was home?—
even though it was only a two-hour drive between.

When they woke up in the morning,
their night's dreams misplaced and forgotten,
they both complained of a back that ached,
but blamed it on the valleys
in the mattress.