Legacy

What remains of us once we are gone?
Our words? Our actions? Our dreams?

There is but one acknowledged truth:
That all who live just as surely die.

In my youth, I dreamed of castles and true love,
Now neither of these will satisfy me.
Towers crumble and love is transient-
I want much more than fleeting glory.

I want to exercise my freedom of thought,
To openly laugh at the world and
Throw its ideals back in its face,
To find a measure of peace in a place where
Pacing faster and faster in
Smaller and smaller circles
Is all that is acceptable.

I have no interest in being merely acceptable,
Exceptionality is a far worthier goal.
To leave the world more complex than it was,
To be the spark of an intellectual inferno,
To create a phenomenon of outstanding proportions
Is what I aspire to.

For upon our deaths, no thought unwritten,
No deed undone, no word unspoken
Nor intention unrealized will remain,
Save the inspiration with which we moved the living.