Lost Spark

How did you end up like this?

You wake up at 11am after ignoring the 6am alarm that you promised you wouldn’t snooze, 

like you’ve ignored countless times before. 

You roll out of bed and drag your tired feet to the bathroom mirror;

 you look at the man staring back at you and barely recognise him. 

The eyes that once sparkled with joy 

now blink lifelessly. 

Your mouth tries to feign a smile 

but the only person you’re fooling is yourself.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

All the dreams, aspirations and adventures you wanted to have 

now gather dust on a long-abandoned shelf, 

only disturbed by yet another ambition being dumped and forgotten along with the others.

You keep saying to yourself that tomorrow will be the day you turn it all around 

but before you know it tomorrow turns into yesterday, 

then last month, 

then last year 

until eventually just like dreams do, 

they fade into nothingness replaced instead with all the meaningless nothings that life throws at you.

Somewhere along the way you lost the spark.

The spark that made you unique, 

separated you from the masses, 

that made you a hopeless romantic or a carefree daydreamer.

Now you see others on the street who have that spark that you so desperately seek, 

it fills you with envy but also a longing to again experience a taste of what they are feeling, 

even just for a day.

Every now and then you feel it,

the flicker of an ember, 

trying desperately against the wind of an unforgiving world to reignite the spark that was lost.

Maybe it’s time you dusted off that shelf of forgotten dreams and started to rediscover yourself.

It will be hard; 

you know that, 

but piece by piece 

maybe you can be whole again.