Damage Assessment

Teenage heartache
Becomes middle age chest pain
I am nostalgic for no one
I look forward to nothing

Youthful ambition
Atrophies and stagnates
Aspirations choke and die
Apathy takes their place

The story of my life could fit on one side of a page
Folded into quarters, cut in half and double spaced
Nearly three decades of drawn-out decay
Reduced to a single refrain
I sing

I have done everything wrong

And it’s a hard pill to swallow when you take the whole bottle at once

And all young lovers
Grow to resent each other
Sparks fly then fall and die
Old flames get smothered

And all my potential
Lost and never recovered
If I knew then what I know now
I wouldn’t even have bothered

And even in my wildest dreams
I just sit and watch TV
Maybe call up my best friends to see if they remember me
I think in a language I don’t speak
I don’t say anything I mean
Ungraciously admit defeat
A lifelong losing streak because

I have done everything wrong

And it’s a hard pill to swallow when you take the whole bottle
When you take the whole bottle you wake up and everyone is gone