I.

Give me the version of the past
in which the present could still be recovered.

We spend an inordinate amount of time
reversing the reversals.

And still we hold, still we adhere to,
the unfavorable odds.

Defeated at birth, what can we do
that isn't just going through the motions?

Hands off the merchandise.
Beware their wares.

The free market not being, of course,
free.

How we long for someone
to judge our daily production!

Now is a lie, as every now
has always been.


                        II.

How I shall punish the world
each and every time it thwarts me!

And how shall you accommodate
the glancing blow, the killing blow?

You are misreading history
if you are not appalled.

Man untamed by love.
Woman enthralled by power.

A constant reminder
of the memory of inconstancy.

Trust not those who sigh and say
"It cannot be helped."

I don’t want to change anyone.
but I want them all to change themselves.

They are, I suppose, good at what they choose to do.
But no more than that.


                        III.

The defining characteristic of humans may be how much they do
with little or no understanding of why they do it.

To do nothing wrong is not enough.
Do something right.

Who speaks for the unseen
speaks for me.

In both the happy ending and the unhappy ending,
it is the "ending" that is the realistic part.

The greatest failure is for what one was
to be better than what one is.

There is more where that came from.
And less where it is going.

I don't know if it's difficult,
but it isn't easy.

Even the past, eventually, grows tired
of waiting for you to return to it.