What do I know?

They always said

“Write what you know

Because you’re an expert on that”

And that was fine

Advice

Except for the fact

I didn’t like my field

Of expertise

Because it was always

The same sense of loss

Of coming so close

But somehow falling short

In the most anticlimactic

Of ways

While others had near misses

I had near successes

The thing that was worst

Was I felt like a fraud

I lived my comfortable life

And the things I lost

The near successes

Weren’t key to my survival

Or anyone’s

That the losses were real

Didn’t seem to matter

When stacked up

Against other lives

Mine appeared

Perfectly fine

So I write what I know

Because that is what

They told me to do

They have their near misses

And all I miss

Is you