Blind Ambition
By John Herlihy

Blind ambition trails us like a satellite moon,
Always sitting like an elephant in the room.
Its light sometimes falls into stretches of road,
We feel like failures, like a centipede or a toad.
Ambition’s current pulls us, a force of gravity,
Kept as a treasured talisman, in all its severity.
Its urgency such that it takes no prisoners,
Its insistence such that it can cause tremors.
Always pulling ever forward, in a wild surge,
Ambition’s moon inspires us with its urge.
Truth to tell, we feel like a rope dragged along,
Crashing through life’s ruts for a simple song.
No ghost resting there quietly in the shade,
Our blind ambition, like prancing horses on parade.

Ambition casually whispers secrets into the ear;
Listen to me carefully and you need have no fear.
Ambition’s timelessness seems almost eternal,
Tucked for safe-keeping in shadows nocturnal.
The problem with ambition lies in its ambiguity,
Offering us desires inappropriate, an incongruity.
Ambition pushes us onward, as a trusted familiar;
But our ambitions often collide with the peculiar.
What we desire to achieve has the force of reprimand;
What we wish to achieve not always at our command.
In fire and excessive pride, ambition leads the way,
Telling us at our every step what we need to say.
No, let me be content with my own thoughts and virtue,
Not seek to shine in a frivolous world that can hurt you.