Generations: A Poem
How fully formed are our lies,
Letting them live in others without footnotes?
Brave and wise and worldly and all,
Insurmountable in their legacies.
How young and accomplished are elders while we are old in our youth,
With nothing to show in the seconds we’ve been.
I am embarrassed.
Embarrassed my tasks are my own yet must be measured to yours,
Yours that you have the advantage of being done with.
How easy it is to live when you’ve lived,
Shifting your mistakes aside from the present,
Gleaming like a worn statue,
Polished by the time and lost you’ve endured.
So keep the lies going,
Let them mislead and mythologise.
Amongst the deceit and the guilt,
You will find the wish to achieve and grow.
This is where aspiration becomes inspiration.
From the fiction of life comes a reality of dreams.
But please know the difference,
If not for your sanity then for others,
For they will fall for your falsehood like you did.
If you must leave something behind,
Let it not be your parents.
They have had their chance,
And you yours.
Know you are yours and self contained,
Never stepping out into others.
For you will be no better than the ghosts of expectation.
