As Life Ends

Drunken on misery
One too many times
Trampled by my old ways
I bow and break for fate
I am no more than a man
No matter how much I pretend
All of my victories, and virtues, and aims
Go rotten, in the end

How many times must I learn
"Don't look up too high or you'll burn"
Once stood a man
With his gaze lifted high;
Now deep in the river,
My throat is still dry

The air that binds my lungs
Slips away and frees my tongue
The signs that once divined my way
Melt to reveal a brand new day
With this, my final breath
I laugh and look to death
For it wasn't until my life's end
I dared to glimpse beyond the bend

How much easier would it have been
If I had learned just to grin
When fate had laughed, and life had scoffed
I would have seen I was better off
But now, nothing can be changed
The ink is dry and I am caged
Even with these mistakes to my name
Life was perfect, all the same