Legacy

Given enough time, nothing remains

Photo by Tom Podmore on Unsplash

Ozymandias,
The King of Kings,
Left his likeness
On the burning sands
To slowly fall into decay
Over thousands of years

Though broken,
His cold visage
Still stares out across the wastes,
Triumphant in the glory
That has long outlived
His memory

And, as we should,
we despair;

For myself,
I will have no such monument

I stir the air a little:
A charmed phrase,
A gentle rhyme,
A fragment of melody,
And all disappear
Even as they are made

My errors too
are small,
No catastrophes will follow my name
Beyond those many small catastrophes
That follow all men
And hence follow none

So my name will be writ in water too,
A moment passing,
Then all will return as if we never were