My life is riddled with the remains of my complacency
Half-finished works and unrealized potential
Strewn about like rusted junk on an unkempt lawn
Overgrown with laziness and apathy

Countless times have I heard praise
Fade to hushed disappointment
Millions of possibilities and lofty expectations
Lay rotting from neglect

At once full of promise
But doomed to fail from the start
Like a story retold to each passing generation
With the same fizzled ending

A waking dream of what could be
Stillborn by the morphine of unproved arrogance
Desire and discipline dim before they roar
Extinguished by bottomless lethargy

And that is the difference
Between a worthwhile legacy
And a paper-thin façade of accomplishment
Carefully draped over an unfulfilled life

tags :: wasted potential : disappointment : apathy : laziness : regret