📃 Daily(ish) poem → 00326 ◊ Testament ◊ Lawrence Raab
Testament
In my youth I wondered often about the past—
how it would change, and where it would end.
Now I can tell you many strange things
will never be revealed, and you
should be glad to know this.
When I vowed to discover the truth
I tried not to care about being believed.
I walked alone under the wild moon,
listened to the rain unfolding
its many propositions. Those were the days
of certainty and surmise. Thank you
for reading this far. Perhaps
you’ve found these pages by chance
and you’re hoping for the wisdom
endings so often promise. Let me say:
Here or nowhere is the whole fact.
But assume nothing about this world,
neither its rules, nor any of its daily habits.
Nor how easily a man can throw
his life away. Or if,
in fact, I did. I won’t excuse myself,
not now. The light that keeps the sky
in place is fading, but it’s always fading.
Forget the past if you can. It’s never over.
And then it is.
—Lawrence Raab
—from Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts (2015)