What have we achieved

We are growing old, yet what have we achieved?
A lifetime spent wanting, chasing what could have been,

Never content with the present, never at ease,

How many hearts have we shattered in our pursuit of a dream?

This so-called happiness, this elusive "forever" love—

Was it worth the destruction we left in our wake?

We raised middle fingers to the world, friend and foe alike,

Burning bridges in the name of something that never stayed.

We have achieved what? Wealth? Happiness?

Or just hollow victories draped in society's weight,

Living a life bent to the will of others' desires,

Our voices silenced when told to obey.

You, so-called brave, who stood defiant once,

Now quiet when the world demands compliance,

So what have we gained, in the end,

But the heavy burden of a life lived in pretense?

Nothing.

Nothing, but the echoes of what we could have been.