Pipe Dream

What is a pipe dream? Is it one of those that gives you a fright
Where you wake up and scream in the middle of the night
Because you felt too happy and something didn't feel right?
Or maybe it is a waking dream - the kind where you see
A well-remembered face in a place where you want to be
But know it is only someone else on TV.
Or the pestilential want that makes for having
When the having is too difficult and, too hard, the knowing.
Or the dreams of old men smoking stale pipes
And remembering all they didn't do and other silly gripes.
Or maybe it is just what the butterfly sees
When it has slept just long enough and flies out of its sheath
To face butterfly nets and hungry bees, pollen-less flowers and unbending trees
Just so it can a take a fresh, happy, free breath.