You can’t have all the world,

Whatever your ambitions,

But you can have the lines of tree branches,

Naked and beautiful

Against a winter sky,

And you can have a chocolate milkshake

With fried clams on the side,

And you can bury your feet in the grass

And feel its cold wetness,

And you can love the world

Because it loves you.

You can travel far

And imagine farther;

You can live a life of comfort and beauty

But still love the ugly things in life.

You can know the words of a thousand books

But still have more to learn;

And you can have the sky

To devour its fluffy cloud sheep.

You can have that hunger:

So hungry it burns,

So hungry that you can’t think, can’t talk, can’t breathe

For want of this thing,

And because love is boring

And life has an ending,

Because with each word comes the bite of the lash,

And despite how lonely you are,

You can have the world at your feet.