I’VE LIVED HERE BEFORE; and it shows.

Prologue

Always there was a pitter-pat of past behind me

I walked away one step at the time.

After which it overtook me for the future

I saw the past everywhere I looked

Realizing it is as much of me as my shadow.

You can look, but you won’t find me here

I’ve left all the buildings, one by one

Tho I never held the rail before,

Even when I slammed the door.

Ideologue

Don’t dare accuse me of running away

When I’m running towards this Now

As into the future I race

Only to find the past in my face.

= = = = =

THE AGING TWO-STEP

1)       Getting  happy with whoever you are

2)       Staying there.

= = = = =

HOLD ON TO NOTHING; no luggage racks on the hearse.

It’s what you wind up with in the end

At least, of the material variety

Of the immaterial there are warehouses,

Data centers powered on energy released by the dead.

Indulge in what is yours to take:

All that sentimental stuff I won’t bleed into here.

Holding nothing creates the space something usually occupies

Leaving you no pillows, not one cushion

That which comes at you comes into the heart

That which comes into you defines where you are going

Or eludes you because of what is already here.

Holding nothing leaves you little armor

Against slings, arrows, broken promises & insincerity

Taking them into your own heart

Means processing the subterranean & obscure

To raise it, crystalline, from ashes.

= = = =  =

ONLY

Only a couple of things I want to bring along –

Wouldn’t you know it? I put them down somewhere.

= = = = =

BALDERDASH IN COMBAT GEAR

Life is, among other things – certes, not what was in the brochure.

Hey, I had more than my share of nays & yeas that should have been switched.

But being upside down is part of the ride.

I took my seatbelt off more than once

Traveling faster than the laws of physics allow.

So who’s to say? It all got in the way –

I put it down for Now.

That’s as far as I’ve got.

9/1/2026

Carol Borsello