Daniel Lincoln — https://unsplash.com/photos/iK8t56RS4g8

The Baneful Paradox

Through books
And the odd counsel,
I learnt from an early age:

That true beauty
Is not a thing of looks,

Nor fatal success
Diminished by failures,

That sorrows cannot be eternal,

Nor spates of boredom
A sign of loneliness,

Yet it is one thing to know,
And another to live.

My heart and brain
Are autonomous domains,
Set apart by fathomless breadths.

How hellish it is
To know what I know,
Yet still, be ruled by something else.