Aging ambition
By Haris Čolić
You wake up and you see that,
you are not who you used to be.
Brown spots on your skin, tremor,
and the mirror, brashly the same;
A live photograph as a reminder.
A reflection that never lies,
showing a man made out of dust,
who lay down last night as
a freshly dug up piece of clay.
One blink of an eye and
like in an hourglass,
life pours out as a smooth sand.
Young, ambitious poet in front of a mirror,
looking into his past.
From clay to dust, from dust to clay,
it’s a cycle of life until the ambition
evaporates into thin air,
like a water drop on a hot summer Sun.
You wake up and you realize
that you won’t wake up tomorrow.
I wrote this poem, “Aging ambition”, as an expression of fear every artist feels; fear of dying before making our mark on this world. Every artist wishes to leave his art behind and to be remembered for it. Every artists seeks that kind of recognition. We all aspire to create work that will live beyond us and that will change lives of others. However, we are all very much afraid that death will come to us before we accomplish our goals.-Haris-
