what maketh a man.

What maketh a man?
It is a question that is easy yet difficult to answer.
They who give the right answers serves the same master.

I have given various answers to that simple question, and had consorted with those who answered the same.
To my horror, I realise each answer come with its own chain of bonds, the bonds of the master.
My multiple answers gave me multiple bonds. I had become a slave to many masters.
Who can set me free? He.

I have wasted much of my time on the frivolous.
I have wasted much of my time on the wayward.
I have wasted much of my time on the transcient.
I have wasted much of my time on the prescient.

Such waste, such squander of youth. Spending time with reckless abandon, to realise at the end that it could all have gone elsewhere. Wasted chances, unused hopes, unclaimed blessings.

To what, do I strive all day? For what, do I toil and slave?
Goals upon goals, targets after targets - when would it stop? Why did it even start?
Propelled by the unknown, fuelled by the unascertained,
Why do I feel like I am clawing at a mountain with my bare hands?
My purpose seemed to evade me. I have become rudderless.

Yet, before I am swept away by the maelstorm, before I perish in the falls, I had seen the errors of my way... if only I can remember where I placed them bloody oars.....