I Lost
Ok. I lost.
Take my car keys.
Here is the password to my safe.
You want my warm bed?
A reason to live?
You want to sprinkle
this magic light all over
your frosted flakes?
You want the source
of my eternal joy,
the fire of my creative engine?
Or my heart on a bed of
leafy greens?
Ok. I got mixed up in the wrong jam.
I got my career stuck in
a busted sink. Wasted decades.
Never quite found enough love.
Never finished those novels.
Managed to flub every opportunity,
neglected to demonstrate sufficient gratitude
when the heavens rained
such bounty upon me.
Ok. Fine. I’m a screwup.
Never lived up to the hype
or found a way to bring the lightning
upon command,
messed up every relationship,
only knew how to love myself first,
was too blind to the pain of others,
too distracted by a billion foolish needs.
Ok, I was vain.
Ok, I was cowardly.
Ok, I didn’t have quite the right work ethic
and wasted years just thinking
it would all magically work out.
Ok, I rang the wrong buzzer
let racoons into my house
fell into a manhole
sang to the wrong sun.
Ok. Ok. It wasn’t good enough.
It wasn’t what you wanted.
But I’m here now goddamnit,
and I’m ready to turn this
big old bus around,
so sit back
and watch
as my crazy ass
makes up
for lost time.
About this poem
"I Lost" is from Matt Nagin's poetry collection "Notes From The Bonfire" available here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NW8B1YD
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Submitted by mattnagin on November 29, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 17 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AXX XXXBXXXCDX XXXDXEXXE FFGXFXXX XEXGX BXXC XX AXXXXXFX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,270 |
Words | 277 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 10, 9, 8, 5, 4, 2, 8 |
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"I Lost" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/114808/i-lost>.
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