upside in poetry

The upside to scary things is you get the opportunity to overcome ‘em.
Your differences aren’t curses, they’re gifts to make you realize
everyone’s different, to fill you with compassion and empathy.
We don’t have to be perfect, we just have to be a little bit better
than the jerks we were yesterday and eventually we’ll get there.
Like the rest of the human race, I am making this up as I go along.
Unlike most of the human race, I gleefully admit it.
There are no more adults, I don’t know if there were ever adults.
Oh, we age and we die but now these days we die as children
that have just worn themselves out. It’s for the better.

And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias,
I’m the best around, nothing’s ever gonna keep me down!’

Every morning, before enlightenment, the monk went to the well for water.
Every morning, after enlightenment, the monk went to the well for water.
Until eventually, he got famous for being enlightened
then he had unpaid interns to do all that stuff for him.
He lost his enlightenment soon after, though
he never put two and two together
that it was probably a cause and effect thing.
Famous people have songs written about them.
Great people write their own goddamn songs.

The upside to all of this is that we get to all overcome it
we all get to figure out
how to change without losing ourselves
how to move on without freezing inside
how to succeed with humility to save
us from the awful reflex to believe
that success makes us something like gods
yes, these are scary things they are awful to face
but we get the opportunity to overcome it
here’s hoping we can together.

We’re not like stories, we don’t get happy endings.
Not ending, though, is the happiest thing of all
I’ll take it, for now.

Last updated September 14, 2016