Modern Woe

I've got a problem
and I don't know
what to do.

I've paint'd myself
a color and I'm
afraid it's blue.

All along I've been
told potential
is what I've got.

But what I really
want, I've discover'd
can never be taught.

So I'm trying to
write a poem
and rhyming it to be noticed

when what I would
really prefer
is to be, damnit, kiss'd!

Okay, so enough of that.

It's the potential that
bugs me, the idea of
potential, that this
is what we've got.

I think our problem
is that we're always told
"Be better than yourself."

I say, what we should
be hearing is
"Be as good as yourself."

That's the idea of
potential, not
a prospect of possibilities,
but to take what comes
naturally to yourself,
work with that,
and then make it work.

That's what you
should be doing.

That's what people
should allow you to do.

That's what happens,
when people succeed,
it's not about
opportunity,
it's about potential.

Those who succeed,
it's not that they
create opportunities
for themselves, it's
that they fulfill
their potential.

Maybe the problem is
whether or not
it's noticed.

I can't talk about that.

I believe things are
always happening
that people don't notice,
that history ain't about
those who succeed
but those who are noticed.

Maybe that's the ego trip,
what Hindus and Buddhists
call trapped in existence,
our own personal
existential
purgatory.

But that's it.

I don't believe in
Heaven
and I don't believe in
Hell.

I believe we get
what we deserve,
and it has nothing
to do with anyone else.

It's free will
and it's destiny

our potential,

and that's the tale
of modern woe,

that thing that
makes it all go.