After Fame

All the glory,
all the grandeur:

your name etched
in stone,

in trophies glinting
from too much
polish,

in the roar of
a hundred thousand
teenage fans,

the myth of
immortality.

Your fame never
lives on forever,
all the grandeur
evaporating into
the air for someone
else to capture
later,

and you are
left to stand, naked
in vast open spaces,
alone, and you
must not buckle
at your knees
out of emotional
mix: confusion,
sadness, anger,

this unmistakable
instability in
the wake of
idolization's statue
torn down,

must learn to live
in the fugue,
you must learn to
live it, or you
will falter
like so many
before you,

superficiality cracks
and you only have
memory left,
prepare yourself.