How to Fake It 'Til You Make It

Doubt yourself every step
of the way
until you can
rely on those you cannot see,
the conscious filigree
congregating in your dreams.
Stifle your potential for years,
and compartmentalize
the elusive days of youth
when you were supernatural,
gorgeously pliable & well preserved.
Middle-aged? Congratulate yourself!
You’ve made it this far when others
have plunged.
Keep going.
(You’ve got this!)
Ritualize & organize
the closer you get to the end,
pretend you can rehab
entropy,
pretend, pretend, pretend.
Keep going.
Energize your desire to exist.
Keep alive this thing called “living”
until it oozes out of your pores--
until those who label you “incapable”
no longer persist.
Allocate & squander your best years
to this inscrutable quest.
Then, either by accident,
or through divine intervention,
metamorphosize
into a thing of splendor.
Dream eternal in the stars,
then, suddenly, you’re here,
relic in the making,
mythic goddess within.