Envy The Common Man Poem by Russ von Ohlhausen

How I envy the Common Man,

To live in the world that we create.
To drift on the winds with no debate.
But it‘s not for those of us upon the mind’s frontier,
Not passengers on this ship, for we were born to steer.
Many times I tried to live as common as I could,
That world cast me out every time, as I knew it should.
For though I wanted to take on common mortal ways,
The Gods had not deemed it so, for these were not my days.

Don’t take me wrong, one is never greater nor the other ever less.
It takes of us both to give the world our life’s very best.
These are the roles to which by Fate that we are merely born.
It is not for those of either lot to ridicule or scorn.
But I do find that I envy a common simple life.
I dreamt once, I‘d settle down and someday take a wife,
Then take up work and grow old out laboring in some field.
That was not to be as I took up my armored quill and shield.

Settled now, a common man I was not meant to be.
I gave up hope, some time ago, *that* life was meant for me.
Stars gave me purpose, to answer for a sin.
To guide and change the ways that man long since has been.
This noble charge is only bestowed upon a few.
To point the world from history and show the old, the new.
Though we are not the same, we bring what we’re here to give.
Still, I watch with envied eyes the humble lives you live.

How I envy the Common Man.