Who are these artists
that work so hard to
make their ideas into objects
or print or performance or sound?
What do they want?
Why don't they do something else
with the possibilities of their brief existence?
How many will look back on a lifetime
of wasted efforts, wasted time,
opportunities lost,
potential selves, life paths, and loves sacrificed
as they find themselves
old, poor, and alone
surrounded by their “art,”
monuments of their failure to actually live?
How many will be saved
by sacrificing their idea of being an artist?
How many,
instead of trying to make a whole life from art,
will make art by trying to live a whole life?