If You Were Me

 

Think first, before any word leaves  

Your lips, weigh it like a stone.  

Remember, silence is as sharp  

As any phrase you wish to carve.  

  

Question always, and yet yield  

To the questions that silence pose,  

For there is more wisdom in doubt  

Than in answers uttered too fast.  

  

Move with the rhythm of the world,  

But do not dance to its music,  

For the drumbeat of crowds is loud,  

Drowning out the heart’s own pulse.  

  

Stand firm, but not on the hilltop,  

Where the wind blows hardest, fiercest.  

Seek instead the shaded valley,  

Where shadows grow, and thoughts deepen.  

  

Love the world for all its failings,  

But never be its apologist.  

To love is to see clearly through,  

Not to veil with wistful dreams.  

  

Build with care what you will destroy,  

Create, knowing the ruins wait.  

For every work, grand or humble,  

Will someday be a ghostly trace.  

  

And finally, when your time comes,  

To be both less and more than dust,  

Smile at the world’s vanishing,  

Knowing that it too must pass.