To Become Jaded

by Cadence McCracken
(Martinez, CA)

A large-scale perspective can make people wise,

but how are mere emotional humans

to cope with what they then know?

About their own lives and those around them,

the purposelessness, the frivolity,

the infinitesimal, temporary nature of it all –

big picture answers

that can make it all seem pointless

and make the game no fun.

Are drugs and learned indifference

really the only way?

To become jaded

so you may know without pain,

without the truths behind today and tomorrow

haunting you all through the while.

For if one cared they'd ache to change it,

perhaps even try,

and try and try until they learn

what the jaded have already known –

that life will change regardless of us.

The things we try to keep and stop

will change –

and we've got time left to ache

adjust and see it drift again

indifferent of our pleas.

So if this truth must come with pain –

will someone tell me no –

is to become jaded

my only path to go?