The Things I Leave Unsaid

48. The Excuse Express

If you're fairly good at

Making other people hate,

And you have no desire

To really be that great;

If you aren't the type of friend

To want to be so nice

And lying to the world

to seem perfect will suffice;

If you like to keep a guard,

pretend the world's your oyster

Instead of letting go

of this wild rollercoaster

That life is when you hold onto

Every formed excuse,

The beauty and the glory

of having nothing left to lose,

Then take a number,

No more, no less

And climb aboard

The Excuse Express.

The captain waits.

No service will come.

The trip is long

And not so fun,

But at least

you can take a rest

For no one will

ever again expect

You to ever try your best

Because you won't be that important.

But hey, look on the bright side!

No more work! No hate!

No judgmental thoughts

or expecting stares await!

No more thinking,

No more you,

And nothing really else to do,

So long as you always

have your excuse-

The ticket that's all you need.

Why even bother attempting

to become a perfect ten?

You know you'll never reach it

Yet still you try again?

That never happens,

Not on board the Excuse Express,

Where every single passenger

has forfeited their best,

In exchange for only being

allowed a little rest.

No longer in the running

for any more than less.

So if you are the type

to always need a crisis

To make you feel important

And forget you're not the nicest,

Then I think this train to hell

Could fit your person very well

All you need is an excuse to tell

To climb aboard and ride.

Take a number,

Your ticket too,

If everything's

what you want to lose.

Because that train's misleading and

This poem is a joke.

You are not a maple and

You are not an oak.

And yes I know that's kind of weird but unless you are a tree,

Know that you can move from here

To where you're meant to be.

But if you stop and surrender to

The misleading Excuse Express,

The train runs on your energy

And soon you'll have none left.

None left to go to where you need

And none to use to try to feed

The determination you once had

Sooner or later, you'll go mad.

And maybe you'll then decide you do

In fact desire to be great.

And by that point, I'm sorry,

But it just may be too late.

So find your passion and thrive before

you're weak and fall, succumbing,

Before you lose your everything, and

Before you feel the numbing

and can't care about your life

That's probably only just begun.

Maybe try another time

before deciding that you're done.
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~Dustin the Great