Be Good Poem by Faith Duston

Emptiness rattles me to my core.
Have you ever felt
The need to be
Better
The aching desire to just
Be
Good enough
The feeling that lingers even when
nobody
is around

The feeling that you're missing something that was never meant to be lost in the first place

As if feeling less of a person
Was something
That you
Could
run away from
As if
There was a remedy
Elsewhere, waiting to be found,
No.
It's all delusion

There is no cure for the heartache that is brought on from feeling mediocre.

Trying desperately to meet
the standards That
People create.
Alone,
Trying to find a way
To bring
yourself
To
Tears
That never come.
Wanting to let it all out, to feel something other than less than enough.

You toil on, working to please others that may never be complacent

Numbness starts to set in as you strain
Your heartbeat becomes
A steady rhythm,
Automated.
The memory of feeling alive,
Mirthful even,
Begins to
fade
Like the sunlight at dusk
Begins to wane