The Ambition Poem by jan oskar hansen

The upmarket restaurant has big windows, I sit on
my scooter and look in, it’s full of elderly well- to-
does, those whose only ambition in life was to make
money- and they were right! Sun tanned, Spick &
Span, they are going to live long, perhaps forever,
or till Mount Everest sinks into the Indian Ocean.

They eat steak and salad; I munch on a sandwich
bought, in a supermarket, it’s my fault, ambitions
led me astray, into the wilderness, followed a light
“Hall of Fame, ” but the nearer I got the further
the light moved away, till it was a teasing flicker
on the night sky; both beautiful and unobtainable

My lodestar, will it ever guide me out of wasteland
and show me where the gold is? An old man stops,
admire my scooter, its blue with racing stripes on,
tells me he wishes he could do as me, but he hasn’t
been on a bike for years and its too late now to try;
he looks so sad that I murmur soothing words.