Looking Forward Only Looks Back

The future seduces you
When past seems to include it,
When something planned or foretold

Shows in the rearview mirror.
So, it was real after all!
But it wasn’t. Shades take shape

Out of past experience.
Through them, you anticipate
Something similar again,

Something compounded of them,
Which shows wisdom, since the past
Echoes itself constantly,

And, when it echoes again,
You think, aha, I saw it
Coming. And then you believe

It must have existed first
And you were aware of it.
But it didn’t. Scrutinize

Any novelty closely.
It’s never quite what you thought
Would be, sometimes not at all.