I’m always trying to correct a step

of yesterday, or, if not,

relive it in the moment, feel its momentum,

so to establish either regret or rationalization.
[Regret is a kind of rationalization]

The past follows one like a beast in the woods.

The past is iron-clad in its denunciation [determination]

of what memory defines, since

memory is befuddled by the dance of the hour.

We cannot pick and choose those scenes

that please us now, those moments

around which gilt edges can be drawn

and yet hover in their dark relief of truth

And what is strange and disbelieved by most

Is the fact that yester-times are as close

As one’s collar – the very last second,
[hangman’s knot, death]

The whispering past that just went by

We can twist like a doll to move as we please.

And the doll will smile

The smile of the devil.