off the beaten path

Don’t hold on to scars,
because the world needs more smiling survivors.

Sometimes tired games
become the actual rhythm 
of people’s hearts
before they know it they are
a shell of who they thought they were
or who they actually are.

I remember watching cartoons 
as a kid, it was always the devil
on one shoulder tormenting the angel
on the other.
The same old tired games.

It is these lessons we think we’ve learned,
but they’re merely equations we’ve memorized
just to get by. Everyone crams information
into their brain, but do they really learn what it means?

I’ve seen so many people pretend to be something they’re not
for the sake of another. Then before they realize it’s themselves
they will end up hurting more than they could ever touch
the other person for whom they are striving.
The same old tired games.

I still haven’t figured out why people chase the wind,
is it because they desire to somehow catch it?
Is it worth losing your soul to only get lost in a
world that didn’t even contribute to your existence?

Maybe one day it will sink in that games were meant
for diversions to merely kill time. Perhaps it will be
understood that there are so many better ways to spend
the precious life that you are given once.
Living and learning involves giving up
the same old tired games.