Another New Year's Poem

Another New Year scheduled straight ahead;
Virgin snow by circumstance untread.
In every hopeful heart a dream reborn;
In every dream reborn, a sense of dread.

Oft times before, the dreams were born,
And just as oft died deaths of scorn.
Is all this hopeful dreaming worth the cost
Of the final dream from a weary heart torn?

This foolishness of "better loved and lost,"
Scarce emanates from those who've paid the cost,
But trips and flips across the lips of youth
Who see naught but beauty in the frost.

Those a little longer in the tooth
Suppose experience has taught them truth.
"Dream-filled hopeful hearts are doomed."
But whatever you do, don't tell the youth.

Let them dream their lovely dreams and hope their hopes
As life ahead slips slowly down the slopes
Of fantasy to stark reality.
When dreaming and hoping their courses have run,
They'll look to the youth, as we've done.