Past Facts for a Future without the Present

Spring 2009

Is it fair to admit a truth

that would break a promise?

A bond set on course

but not yet moored.

Has this truth come too late

or just in time?

Is it unjust to the presence of the past

or to the present oversea investments?

Which is greater?

Which has priority in the continuum in time?

Can the fact wait

Lie

Die?

Is it misunderstood?

Is it worth saving myself from its crushing weight,

A life of regret and unrequiting longing,

If it perhaps becomes theirs with a burden multiplied of unknowable density,

Altogether different structures of lattice crystal.

And in the light I carry for such a one

would that lattice break?

In destroying one furture would another be gained

Or would both be forever tainted?

The final question must be

Of this light’s strength and length and origins.

If it is great and frequent and pure,

It must be shown,

For either to torch or to pyre,

Otherwise the light will consume itself

And its lighter in combustion that leaves embers burning;

Faded and isolated in space and time

To taint all other flames.

The only other possibility is that it would dwindle to a whisper

Of smoke giving way to darkness

That lacks resources and energy to strike

Anew a future.

My love is dead, refused, missed, or misplaced.

But love endures

Whether its around or in my hands

Or in the hands of others.

What would I really have to offer

But a soul tossed about by pressure

People

Places

Pleasures.

And in the tortuosity lose

The fact and the love

Left in years apart

And pieces of brokenness

For her and her present tense.

Time enough

To wait

To dwindle the flame,

And twiddle another branch

Now greening.