Relative Failure

[J Hillenburg]

Relative Failure



I gained a tormented education

in the language of men.

I saw them drink, huddled away

amidst inappropriate clusters of trash,

and abandoned hobo campsites.

They sang profound elegies

for every memory

not yet burned away.

Some came and went.

Few taught me much.

What I did learn was that

failure is relative.

The everyday failures

of their lives

appeared instead to be

minor victories

of a sort

due to the simple fact

that they had survived

despite themselves.

The currency of success

was not the diligent dedication

that produced achievement,

but rather

the questionable facility

to satisfy

all momentary impulses and desires.

But they never questioned it.

If they were not marginal people,

their choices had marginalized

them to such an extent

that they had been rendered

insignificant.


Perhaps in the slow, dead hours of night

when a fleeting instance of clarity

penetrated their intoxication,

they realized what they had

lost.

And if they did,

such an epiphany would seem

to be

yet another minor victory,

evidence that self-awareness

had not yet

deserted them.

Somehow though,

I doubt it.


I wanted to weep

for each and every one of them,

and for myself, as well,

a despairing man-child who,

believing he deserved no better,

accompanied these men on their journey

into the abyss.

[lizzytysh]

I wonder if you write from your life's paths or from your observation of others' or from analogical perspectives. I like this poem very much for the way it inverts, as well as justifies, the various perceptions that others live with, in ways many would have never considered, were it not for poems such as yours.

[J Hillenburg]

A little of all of those things, "Liz". My work, such as it is, is
highly autobiographical, and also informed by my observations
of others. Again, thank you for your kind words.

[witty_owl]

A powerful elegy for the common man. This world; this life we must traverse renders us all insignificant. I heard a chap being interviewed today that remarked- "all significant men ( or women) (in history) could be counted on a few hands" The universe will obliterate us all. Where lies the significance?
Regards,