Poem Corner (Yes The Rhyming Kind): Ryan and Jacob

It recently came to me that I should probably try my hand at some legitimate writing every once in a while. So I whipped this guy up. Where my English majors at? Lemme know what needs work. Hopefully you guys find it readable.

Ryan and Jacob

Both Ryan and Jacob were successful young lads
Smart and likable they were both college grads
Friends for many years, they set out to find
What they should do with their smart, cunning minds.

Both men dreamt of stardom, of movies and shows,
To make people laugh and blow milk out their nose.
But both also wanted family, to love and to care for,
A wife and children to hold and be there for.

The guys were offered two jobs writing jokes
On new sitcom called The Odd Folks.
It was what they had wanted since they were boys
They were as excited as kids with new toys

Their faces fell, when they realized they
Must move to the city and there they would stay.
Both had serious girlfriends with commitments to jobs
And long distance relationships always end in sobs.

"I guess," said Ryan "It's one or the other."
"Go work on the show or stay with our lovers."
Both wanted to marry their girl, you see,
But also wanted to accomplish their dreams.

"Well here's what we'll do" said Jacob, quickly hatching a plan
"One of us will go become America's funniest man."
The other will stay and start a good home life
take the woman they love most and make them their wife.

So Ryan broke up with his girlfriend, and started writing in the city
Jacob stayed with his girl and kept going to his job that was quite shitty.
Both did quite well in their own different ways,
Jacob married his girl and had children to raise.

Ryan outgrew the writing and went on a comedy tour,
He became quite famous which the movie studios couldn't ignore.
He was signed to contracts, Did movies and ads.
And his quotes from his stand-up became the latest fads

Jacob's children grew older, went through middle school and above,
And they always signed his birthday card "To daddy with love".
He quit his job at office, he stayed home and gave them care,
His wife's career was more important, and to him that was fair.

Eventually, Ryan had a family of his own and a house to boot,
Although he couldn't be home that often, (there were movies to shoot).
Jacob saw the success of his friend, and realized his horrible mistake,
While Ryan had it and had eaten it, too, Jacob had only gotten the cake.

When the movie deals were gone, and his contracts expired,
Ryan settled in to watch his children's lives transpire.
To his horror he realized that they had passed him by,
He didn't know what made his son happy or made his daughter cry.

His dreams had led him on a road of his own satisfaction,
Lost in his desires, he never saw his children's reactions.
He missed his son's basketball games and his daughter's dance recitals,
He never had a family vacation, or read them books from the title.

Now when he sat at his dinner table and saw his offspring's faces,
Without a hint of recognition for him, he had to look at his laces
If they saw his tears, then they'd think he was insane,
and he'd lose the small chance he had to get in their brain.

Now he bitterly thought of deal he made and the life he left behind,
And all he could think to do was pray that life would invent itself a rewind.
No fame or money was worth your children being strangers.
To take it all back, he would face any of life's dangers.

And so the two men grew old, discontent and unhappy.
For they now both thought that their life was more crappy.
Jacob was bitter about his unaccomplished dreams,
and Ryan had ripped his family apart at the seams.

So, they both passed thinking themselves a great failure,
Believing that getting what the other had would be their savior.
So learn from these friends and understand what you must do,
The great key to living your own life and just being you.

As Dumbledore said, Our decisions are who we are,
Actions are louder than words and they go quite far.
Ifs mean nothing, it's the way time is built,
Dwell on them and you'll be consumed with guilt.

Your life is your own, no one else can have it,
So look at what you've got and make it a habit.
Focus on the brights spots and be proud that they are yours,
To define a wasted life: It's a life that the owner abhors.