Born Again Once and for as Long as You Can Remember

Experience that has no value once
It’s no longer being experienced
Had no value. But can you get it back?

Hope, after all, is not for the future.
Fantasy’s for the future, all future
Being no more than games with broken pasts.

Hope’s found in mere memory, remembered
As simply as aging bodies allow.
On a morning in the thick of sorrow,

An evening coming to terms with failure—
Whatever you were experiencing
Once that was wonderful, that isn’t now—

Given you can recollect well enough
To sense regret, then you can recollect
Well enough to find satisfaction yet.

Your life, however increasingly pinched,
Still holds every one of those afternoons
Steeped in well-being with nothing to do,

Every time you remember opening
Your eyes on the surprising addition
Of your new lover is forever new.