In the Rearview

A Poem

Photo by Dorinel Panaite on Unsplash

how can you ever think you know a person
when they are kept behind mirrors
in the phantasm of a moment?

how can you ever think you see someone
when really they are aligned in motion
to some standard you can’t reach?

(hopeless circumstances
have made me hopeless —
and i catch every moment
i can take with every breath i take)

moments
eat
up
moments
like
a
snake
eating
its
own
tail

i’m gilded in the wrong ways,
tarnished in others,
and i cast my lots
in gambling dens

far from the here and now

i wanted everything,
but i had nothing

i craved everything,
yet i kept nothing

and there’s something bittersweet
about it all
and there’s something sacrosanct…