Dreams: A poem by Aoife Lyster

Dreams are for the dreamers they say;
With corporate ties and
Serious sighs

With tests and points,
Souls marked valuable by numbers and words scribed on clinical white paper

But I am a dreamer
I reach and yearn to the sky,
Fingers burned and scorched by scathing words
Of disappointment, discontentment, dishonesty

I try again.
Stretching to the stars,
Unblinking and unflinching at their intensity.

I dream for the dreamers. The free thinkers, risk takers, opportunity makers.

18-year-old Aoife Lyster from Donabate reads her poem 'Dreams'

Imagination against damnation
Creative visionaries and those sceptical critics.

Labels, titles, scorn, hate, love, admiration.

The outside of the conscripting plain grey box.
Galileo, Rosa Parks, Darwin, Gandhi, Curie, Newton, Rowling, Harper Lee

Martin Luther, Mandela, Armstrong

You.

Be a dreamer, a free thinker. Make an impact, leave a mark. Aspire to dream.

Fighting Words 2019: Aoife Lyster is 18 and a student at Donabate Community College, in Co Dublin