You Set Out To Change The World

On 2019090820190907 By Beleaguered ServantIn Original Poems4 Comments

You set out to change the world
But the world changed you

You left here knowing you were meant for great things
And all of us believed it
Because we believed in you
And what you stood for

Then we all saw the pure incandescence of your idealism
Fade slowly to the smeared gas light of what you call
“Realism”

Oh, you are so pragmatic now
Upholding ideals that bear a superficial resemblance
To those you once espoused
But you serve a different master, now
One whose interests always seem to coincide with yours

You live in your bought-and-paid for house
With your bought-and-paid for companion
Amidst the cold lifelessness you call success

But you ultimately overshot the target
Even given the world’s low standards
And the stupefied grin of self-satisfaction
Invades the corners of your skin into every orifice

It’s hard to believe now
That you once were going to change the world

Before it ate your soul

Ablaze

On 2019040720190407 By Beleaguered ServantIn Original PoemsLeave a comment

We kindled in our hearts a dream
Of friendship true across the days;
Together, we would ring the truth,
And set the sleeping world ablaze

For much is darkness, staid with walls.
We all were young, and full in fight:
We wouldn’t rest, though beds be soft,
Until we set the world alight

For hope is work, and that we had
Abundantly; the go, the show —
We’d pool and pour our lives as one
And set this venal world aglow.

But then: the system’s a machine
For grinding us idealists down;
The battle will have casualties,
And heroism doesn’t mean renown —

But though we ache, we do not doubt,
For change comes from the inside, out,
And lives of meaning carry weight
To push upon each wall, and gate
Set up as barriers to truth:
We will, we must, go on, past youth,
And find more ways to make things right

And set the world ablaze

With light