Strange, Retrospective Poignancies

A footnote to Mitchell’s song—

You just can’t know what you’ve got

Til it’s gone. That’s what knowing

Is, seeing just what has been.

Some has-beens seem eternal,

Others at least durable,

But it’s has-beens all the way

Down, in your experience,

And experience is you,

Is all you are, meaning you

Also have always been

Has beens, which is why you are,

All you, each of you, haunted,

By the strange, retrospective

Poignancy of existence

Experienced as you’ve been.