Hearts Rust

What if every person is really just a child

And all they want is validation

A single applause from the stands

What if no one really knows what they are doing

But they want to do something

Even if it does not matter

And we’re all lost the same

Thinking we need to make a name for ourselves

But the world doesn’t care

So we look for people who love us

And it hurts when they don’t

So we hurt them back

And we don’t really know who we are

So we tie ourselves to things we want to be

And at first they keep us afloat

But then they start to sink

And we can’t swim and we can’t untie knots

So we drown

As each breath fills our lungs with water

Our hearts rust

And then we die

…as if we had ever been alive.

Author’s note:

I wrote this poem as an artistic experiment to counter my personal beliefs about life.

Life is not a game. It is not fake. Therefore, it must be taken seriously.

Existence is real, and it is not limited to the material world we see. There is something beyond the physical realm.

Our actions carry weight. Our thoughts matter.

Life matters … because it is not only matter.

With this poem, I seek to convey the hopelessness of a person who still sees the world through the eyes of a child, one who is starving for direction and approval, one who will cling to anything just to be someone.

The question is this: If life is not shouldered, if responsibility is not taken, if direction and intention remain absent … was it ever really life?

Marcus Aurelius remarks in his meditations, “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."

How many of us have not started living and instead bind ourselves to vanities and comforts as we drift in the open sea, waiting to be pulled beneath the waves?

“Man should not fear the burden; he should fear never shouldering it.”