Failure

It happens when you fail in class
To score above the desired mark;
It happens when you die in a crash
And are left to rot in the eternal dark
World where everything unpleasant
Is hurled at you, and is compounded ten—
No, hundredfold, and you can barely begin
To fathom what on earth happened back then;
You begin to sink; sink deep and for good,
And although no one should,
You begin to feel
That nothing in this world is real:
Its joy, its laughter are all distant to you,
Your own face in the mirror,
A poor reflection of something
That used to be real.
Yet it knows how you feel,
For it’s a failure just like you,
And you both walk away.

The occasional triumph comes your way,
And you’re congratulated heartily by all around,
Yet you stand dumbly on your spot and sway,
As though a void were opening up in the ground,
Into which you were fated to fall,
And from where a dark, malevolent voice seemed to call,
And whisper into your ear the eternal truth,
Bad luck stands before you like a brick wall,
Unmoving, unrelenting, permanent.
Your good fortune was merely a mistake,
A careless miscalculation on the part of Fate,
And it proves nothing, and you still are,
A failure,
And will remain so forever and ever,
Until,
Of course,
The constancy of life itself
Fails.