Hindsight Alone Transforms the World

What person painting or composing
Would you most like to accompany?
Your pick of famed or anonymous,

Inscrutable, sacred creation
Or particular manifesto
Meant to change the world for the better.

You could go back as far as you’d like,
Set the dial to a particular cave
In Australia, France, or Borneo

Some tens of thousands of years ago,
Or zoom on some historic moment
You’ve often read and wondered about.

Don’t you think you’d be disappointed?
The moment of creation, the point
Of inflection is generally dull,

Quiet, someone brushing some pigment,
Tapping at a glowing disk, staring
Into an abyss while the wind blows.

The making of the astonishing
Looks no finer than scribbling hack work,
And if you asked questions, you’d wreck it.

No, there’s nothing better than to meet
The lines between before and after worlds
Unawares, unforewarned, long after.