What are our limits?
How will we recognize them?

The award-winner speaks from the platform:
"If you can dream it, you can do it!"

But I think of all the dreamers–
including women and men I know and love–
whose dreams remained unfulfilled.

No Entry reads the sign–
no entry, no matter how strongly you desire it.

We do have our limits.
There are doors closed to us.
The sky may be the limit for a chosen few,
but the ceiling may be the end of it for most:
Only one will win the election.
Only one will be employee of the year.
Only one book of every 500 gets published.
Only one song of every 1,000 gets recorded.

So if No Entry is the reality,
how do we find happiness
among the masses who remain–
shoulder to shoulder with us–
outside? 

You must answer this for yourself.

I will make what I achieve
enough
and rejoice in the space I have entered
and occupied
and made my own.

We can at least make room in our hearts
with signs that read
Enter Here.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.