Shadows and Memories--poem

Bitter reality knocked the wind from my sails.

My train of hopes and dreams really came off the rails

Every once in a while, out of the corner of my eye, I'll see

 a picture, or hear myself sing, and that's the man I'll never be.

Yes, I know, nobody likes a whiner, and I'm no different,

but now the course I set for the future is broken and bent.

While it's true, there's been a veering away, a change of plans,

 I still hold the key to a bright future in my hands.

But sometimes I long for the way things used to be before,

before fate had other ideas and slammed the door

I wished I'd have taken advantage of my talents, if indeed

they were ever really there at all, but I guess I never believed.

Before, I never had the right attitude, the right frame of mind.

Now the attitude's right, but it's to impossible that I'm confined.

But I know it's just the what that's changed, not the what's possible.