Whoever said literature portrayed life
Was wrong
For what looks good in stories
Is oft devalued erelong

For
The Heathcliffes of the world
Condemned as cruel and crude
The Howard Roarks
For their dreams, sued
Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterley
Alive in stories but
Shamed and shunned utterly

Into fantasy, escapes the reader
But knows well there are no unicorns
No wonderlands, no Neverlands
Tough reality mourns, scorns, warns

Life stretches, literature reflects but a moment
Reflects like the concave mirror, magnifies virtually
Stretching the moment to cover an entire lifetime
To glorify in words when it couldn't in sooth
To give alternate endings that satisfy
To give endings, when there weren't any.....