Career’s end

What a little inconsequential thing

it turns out to have been. Seen from inside

it’s seemed so all-absorbing, the stakes so high,

a path through endless days that stretched ahead

of me, a twisting road that disappeared

into the foothills of the range marked on

the map Acclaim, Achievement, Validation;

a gauge, a means of measuring myself,

and most of all, a way of feeling not

unnecessary

 

Now look what’s left;

that husk, an empty shell,

some fast-dissolving memories of train

journeys to long-forgotten meetings

a lot of typing

a few bad debts

the printer running out of in