Maple Syrup and Lemons Left

Was there a reason for the past?
The past’s a speculative asset

With tenuous underlying
Value meaning can be imposed

On at will. Of course, it springs back.
The past’s facts resist, push back, crack.

Every person manipulates
And massages the past a bit,

And most arguments are about
What, in fact, actually’s in it,

Tricky, since it’s always changing,
Encouraging speculation

And a lot of bad modeling—
The past will quite soon look like this

Because the past now looks like that.
But who asks why there is a past?

Could there be a kind of physics
Where the past just disappears

And at each moment the world wakes
Up to its next novel breakfast

Without wondering what happened
To nonexistent tea and cakes?