Simile: Dream Deferred

"Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?"

This entire poem is a series of similes. Thought the speaker suggests many fates for dreams, they all are bad ends in which the dream has died, decayed or disappeared. The speaker's point is that dreams can not be put off if one wants it to become reality. In the same way a raisin dries up if it is subject to sunlight, dreams dry up if they are subject to time. Or, it can be compared to a festering sore, becoming harder and harder to heal as time goes on. Dreams become harder to attain the more time goes on and the more one puts them off. Like the smell of rotten meat reminds one of its presence, a deferred dream will always be in one's mind as a constant reminder of what could have been. Maybe this same concept can make it seem like "a heavy load" bearing down on the dreamer. It is even possible that a deferred dream can be compared to something that has exploded. If a dream is put off too long, it is no longer possible. It is dead and gone without hope of return.