Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Nervous Inability to Define Failure

Failure is a curious thing
A very finite word
a punctuation, almost
at the end of a sentence
or series of sentences
or life
as we understand it

most importantly
it seems to be something
only someone else
can identify
while we are left open ended
questionable
and as I stated
curious
until that someone else
comes along
and points it out
to us

only then does the abstract
crystalize
only then does failure
pull itself out from the floor
its black shadow
finally manifesting
before our eyes
into this creature
9 or 10ft. tall
wildly imposing stature
staring down at us
hot breath dripping
while we struggle
to make eye
contact

everyone hates to see it
everyone hates to see
most things
the footsteps they have made
scattered towards
an inevitable horizon
now crowded by the millions
of other footsteps
all trophies of a million
of other failures
our own voices
no longer audible
in the white noise
of the crowd

be very grateful
such a force exists
such a force that I'd guess
is one of the most
powerful
in our known universe
a million black suns
blazing
their gravity pulling us
towards black oblivion
while failure's curious shape
stands
and smiles

I used to think
such a process
could be avoided
like a lawn chair that spilled
out of someone's truck
and now sits in the middle
of the highway
but that isn't so
mostly all of what I thought
just isn't so

my own voice
has bled into the white noise
the shape has formed
the curtain has been raised
and I can't tell
my footsteps
from the others
failure has arrived
in the death mask
of oblivion
for us all
the final insult
being lack of prejudice

we can't even own
our own failures
they belong
to all

how disgusting