Warn Your Memories

Unless the past considered
Is barely a moment past,
It’s nearly impossible

Not to think of it in terms
Of what happened after it.
More recent pasts are lenses

On any earlier pasts—
Or, more often, cataracts.
Try to recall then without

Thinking of what’s happened since,
Without your perspective now,
Knowing what would happen next.

You can’t. Almost never can.
At best, or worst, the persons
You remember you never

Met again, leaving those thoughts
Slowly crumbling in your brain,
No subsequent sediments

Silting over revenants.
The rest? If they only knew
What you know, or think you do.