I get aligned and my life begins to feel smaller More manageable It looks smaller And I feel better I wonder if I’m disappointing my dad By living so regulated And at ease With no ego pushing me to be famous At every turn It makes me melancholy To think he would be disappointed By my lack of stardom What a pressure I’ve held all these years To rise and shine Big enough to him To go and claim the light The stage The fame He believes is mine It makes me melancholy And frustrated too And nauseous And confused I’ve applied to teach high school art And I’m really excited about it actually Which If I let it and I let those familiar voices Which scream that I MUST BE FAMOUS If I let them talk to me The idea of Living near good friends Eating good food With my good boyfriend Making a good album that I’m proud of Playing in a good band Having good days And teaching art To make a good paycheck With good benefits All of this good makes me queasy But it feels so good The simple life The slow life I’m allowing Feels so good Is it okay? Is it okay that I don’t crave to be great? The illusions fades And I love my good mornings with my cat In the sunshine with my hat and my tea I remember the phrase that came to me When I left LA I don’t need everyone to hear my voice But I want my voice to land on those who can hear me That feels good and true There’s some phrase I never remember That maybe describes my conflict Diminishing returns The law of diminishing returns I think is what I’m thinking of But anyway it’s a thing where you’ve put in so much work for so long That you feel like it’s not worth it to give it up You have to stick with it Because otherwise your years and hard work pounding against an immovable wall will be wasted But it’s a fallacy Because the years are already wasted And you just don’t want to admit the waste So you continue to waste This morning I was thinking So what if I stay here 3 years And save up and Then I move to Italy and buy one of those 30k villas and renovate it That’s fine with me And in that time get to meet my new long lost sister See my dad healthy again Enjoy more seasons and my mom as she moves into her new seasons I wasted 8 years on a dream that hurt Why not spend 3 years enjoying a quieter dream that comes easy to me A life that is MINE Not a life that craves to be validated by millions Just so I feel worthy of existing I am resolved My small good life is good enough for me and it feels So good So I will let this melancholy sit with me as long as it needs But my good simple life is good And I’ll stand by it And alter these pants I got at the thrift store So I can wear them when my cover band plays our next show And I’ll study for the teacher exam And I’ll play with my cat And work on my album And have sleepovers and Write poems Smile so much And breathe so so deep