Eulogy: Everything Must Go

You will leave unfinished business.


This is one of the hardest lessons you will have to accept.


Plans will be left undone. People will be left hanging.

You will not meet expectations.

Accept this:
At one point in your life,
the end,
the people who cared about you most,
who put up with you through everything,
will wish you could have done just a little bit more.
More oomph.
More wow.
They saw so much light in you,
but now you can't give enough.
No matter how much you've done,
they want to see what you can do
tomorrow.
Disappointing.
Disillusioning.
Sad.
Nothing is ever enough.
You give and give
and they remain insatiable.
Makes it seem not worth your time
to do anything.
You're not happy
And they'll never be happy.
Besides,
you do less damage
when you do nothing.
If you don't affect anything,
you can't make it worse.
You can remain
impartial
a benchmark
an oasis
Someone people come to
for comparison
measurement
comfort
It's not a bad existence.

But
A life without effect equals a life inert.
No friction, no movement, no noise.
In the grand microcosm of you,
all your greatest accomplishments
resonate
only within the shell of yourself.
Resigned to the will
of others' perception.
You are solely
what they make of you.
And sometimes they get the message wrong.
You say, "I love you."
They read, "Olive loaf."
And you wonder why that happened.
Impartial, nonjudgmental
becomes
Unfair, self-imprisoned
Crossed wires blocking all,
straining out the meaning
and killing this link between us.
With a life like this,
who needs to live?
The last page in our books
all read the same.
Might as well go peacefully
and without struggle.

Until
the miscommunication gets edgy
peevish
a boil.
Not only do they misread,
they spit back
the same thing
they swore they got from you.
And it stings.
You've lost who you are,
and they don't know you.
As hermetically sealed
as you are,
it's enough to make you implode
Outward.
They cannot take this from you.
You are someone.
You stand for something
honest and vibrant
hard-fought, resounding
worthy of someone's time
for all time.
They better damn well get the story right
and enough with the bloody spitback.

So
with every faculty at your disposal
with any ability you can conjure
with whatever method you still have left
you must
build those bridges
unsnap those gates
break through those walls
even on the brink of extinction.
You were made in the image
of Divine Inspiration
and your name must not be taken
in vain.
Tell the world.
Show them all.
Rouse up their ires with your
flippant stylistics
extensive verbosity
and a smile that leaves 'em simmerin'.
And although
the countdown keeps tickin',
the deadline approaches,
and total system failure is imminent,
to make sure you and I
see eye to eye,
I will continue to make plans,
agree to meet up,
and shatter your mind with my cause
well after I've worn out my welcome
even though every step
takes me closer to the void.


At the end of it all,

even in the face of losing everything,


you must have unfinished business.


'Tis the only way to truly live.


----------------
Now playing: Muse - Sing for Absolution