Farther Than an Undetected Star, but . . .

Farther Than an Undetected Star, but . . .

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 

We know that nothing can be further from

Us, further than the past.  The past is gone

Much farther than orations from the dumb.

A sunset past is further than a dawn

Tomorrow even if we die before

It breaks.  Yet every day a song we knew

Brings back a love long dead.  A door

That we forgot appears.  We stagger through

It.    Agonies scarred over seize our throats.

We turn a corner and the one we lost

Comes back (but not).  The sins we did make notes

Behind our sternums, guilt as sharp as frost.

  The past is never far away.  It grabs

    Us harsh, harsh, lurking slyly with its stabs.

Phillip Whidden