The sun shines brightly
on a joyful new day.
Let us laugh and laugh
until our minds are jelly and paste.
No, I will not
"take it down a notch."
Not for you, for myself, or for anyone.
I am free as the sky.
I know, you know, we all know,
What happens to me when the dreary time comes.
The world falls apart, reality losing its lustre
as all returns to the correct muted gray and _____.
But who cares? Let's not let the spoilsport
ruin our fun. Live in the moment,
Die in the moment, be your authentic self -
For there is no future to look forwards to.
I am Night, the eternal slumber,
once again reminding you of outstanding debts.
Your soul is mine, as ruined as it is,
For even the most damaged of people have value.
I repeat my lamentations forevermore
as I repeat the same actions
that create this melancholy suffering.
I ask, "Where has all the joy in the world gone?"
while I push it away and reject every inch
for I am afraid of allowing spring
into my frozen, quiet winter.
I ask, "Where have all the good men gone?"
as I fail to see that I myself
am not a good man,
and thus see little good in others.
I ask, "What can I do to make the right choices?"
as I look at the choices in front of me
the correct one obvious to my discerning eye
and choose the shortsighted option again.
I ask, "How can I be better?"
as I ignore the hard, effortful path to victory
the path taken by everyone else who won
and simply hope greatness will fall onto my silver platter
I ask, "Where is someone who will love me?"
as I fail to see the good in myself
and forget that love, like charity,
starts from within.
I am a Good Person.
I must not get angry.
I must not fight people.
I must not shout.
I must not be angry.
I must not be sad.
I must not talk about my paltry issues.
I must not talk about what I want.
I must not be inconsiderate.
I must not be insensitive.
I must not appear threatening.
I must not allow my face to be percieved.
I must not speak to people.
I must not draw the attention of others.
I must not be extraordinary.
I must not be unique.
I must not appear unhappy.
I must not appear different.
I must not see myself as unhappy.
I must not see myself as happy.
I must not seek freedom.
I must not prioritize myself.
I must not hestitate to help others at the cost of myself.
I must not unshackle myself from the chains of my own design.
I must not escape these chains which hold myself back from both Heaven and Hell alike.
I am a Good Person.
Hey, dad. You've given me a lot over the years. You've given me everything I have. You've pushed me to everything I did well.
You've also given me a lot of rage. You've given me a lot to hate about. You've given me a lot of trauma.
There's a lot that I want to say here but I can't. Because that would be stupid. Of course it would.
And so I'm stuck now with this mass of boiling rage and hatred and all of it
This fucking stupid idiotic terrible legacy you've passed down
Just hate hate hate nothing but hate just hate
Rage against everyone and everything
But don't actually say it out loud
Just keep it all tucked away
Like a shelf with
ten thousand
big bottles
of rage
tucked
safely
away
.
Why should I care about him? C'mere. Just look at this train wreck.
Ugly face. UUUUUGLY fucking face. Cmon. Have you seen this guy? He looks like every single kind of criminal's face averaged into a final composite. A face only a mother could love, except not even that - his mother is trying to fix it as we speak! Hah!
Fatass belly. Musculature of a rat. Those arms you see? Maybe a twentieth is muscle, the rest is fat. Can barely handle 15 pound dumbbells, what a fucking weakling.
His terrible posture. Back hunched over like he's 90 years old and about to croak, reinforcing his own negative self-image. Eyes empty like his brain, completely numb to reality.
And what about the mind? Well, what about it? He's a fucking dolt. Can't do anything well, refuses to work hard, just escapes everything.
Why, I'd almost go so far as to say that he's the product of nothing but childhood trauma and bad coping mechanisms developed in response to that trauma, except he might also be dealing with some undiagnosed autism and ADHD and those two aren't really his fault.
And look at him even now. Hiding away, refusing to deal with his problems, just writing and yelling and wallowing in despair like a fucking sewer rat, afraid of even asking his time-tested friends for support or help. Instead he just screams into the meaningless void like it's gonna do anything. Newsflash, bub, it ain't doin shit!
He's even gotten himself stuck in a circular loop! He thinks he doesn't deserve good things, he thinks he doesn't deserve to be happy, or be loved, or be human, and this sort of thinking makes him undeserving of those things, and he knows that, and he keeps on thinking it because he wants to not deserve those things! This sort of negative circular reasoning is like getting hit by a parked car; just don't!
And he talks like he's the only one with these problems, like he's the only one who'll ever understand, as he looks right into the faces of everyone who's ever had worse, and tells them that he has it bad, like the whole world has been bullying him specifically instead of him choosing to dig further into the pit.
He thinks he's martyring himself! Like his own suffering makes anyone any happier! (Well, it evidently makes his father happier, but that's besides the point.) What a joke! Come around, everybody, look! An idiot! Let's all point and laugh!
He's not even doing it correctly! All that happens when he talks is he starts fucking venting and making everyone else upset at him and feel bad. If you're really martyring yourself, why even say anything if you don't have something positive to say? Just be a good person and die quietly in the ditch. Shut up about your problems, everyone else has it way worse and doesn't need you adding to it.
Anyways, as you can clearly see, this lil fucker is completely worthless. Waste of air and oxygen. I'd tell him to just jump, except he doesn't even know where his nearest bridge is and hasn't bothered to search it up. What a fucking failure. Tell me, seriously, why should I ever care about him?
Oh. Wait.
That's a mirror.
Solving a problem
is about finding
the right tool.
Sometimes
You have the right tool
but forgot it.
Sometimes
You saw wrong
And you grabbed the hammer
When what you needed was a wrench.
Sometimes
You simply don't have it
And need to go to the store
To get the tool you need.
Sometimes
That tool is people.
New ideas, new methods, new tricks.
Everyone else has so much to teach us.
And sometimes
I stressed so much
I forgot the simple solution
and cried myself to sleep.
And maybe
maybe sometimes
there just isn't a perfect solution at all
and I have to just deal with it.
Or maybe I'm using a voltmeter and car battery
When what I actually need is a hand.
I am in the dark
The rain pounds on the windows
My eyes snap open
Time is running out
I can't feel the urgency
What's in the future?
I look but don't see
I understand but can't feel
I know but can't act.
I have one last chance.
I should prepare - the rain stops -
I wasted my time.
I fear
that I am not perfect.
I am not attractive
and I am not well.
I fear
that any effort I make
is doomed to be wasted
like the other efforts I've made.
I fear
that if I change myself
I will no longer be myself
a conformity gained, a uniqueless lost.
I fear
that if I force myself to change
I will force myself through life
and not have enjoyed any of it at all.
I fear
that if I am just "another person"
then I will have lost all chances
of recieving your love.
I fear
that if I help others
naively, kindly, and oh so optimistically
that I will only be disadvantaging myself.
And yet, I help.
I encourage, I uplift, I support.
No matter how naive I may seem
I continue to serve the good of others.
So maybe, this time
This time I can change, truly
for the better, for the best, to be a new me
To push through the fear while keeping me myself
I fear
that I will still not be deserving
of your love; of your kindness; of you
that my efforts will again be wasted
But I will try anyways.
hmmmm... should I deprive myself of human interaction...?
How can I get you to care about people? How can I get you to be kind?
Why do you think love happens? Why do you think people are altruistic at all?
It's not because someone told them to be, I'll tell you that much.
It's because love and kindness are what the world thrives on.
Nobody wins by being angry all the time. No man is an island.
The world is not zero-sum. Kindness shared is kindness tripled.
But I'll assume this doesn't convince you, or you would've found the path by age five.
Let's consider the people who were solitary. The people who didn't love.
Evolution filtered them all out. Evolution championed kindness.
And if that's not a good enough reason to love, then I don't know what is.
I am really going to go crazy some day,
I am going to go fucking insane.
It feels like the whole world is against me,
when I know it is not in truth,
but I can't let go of truth nor lie and it all blends together.
What do I want? What the fuck do I even want?
Is it money? Convenience? Freedom? Ability?
Will I come to value material more than I value people?
Will I come to value society more than I value its parts?
Will I erase "myself" in search of a "successful" future?
What am I? What can I be?
Am I able to be more than the sum of my history?
More than trauma, coping, addiction, fear, anger, sadness?
Do I even want to be more? Will I lose "myself" in the process?
Am I even allowed to change?