The History of Tomorrow

By John Herlihy

We record the past with meticulous care;

We await the future as a fine cloak to wear.

The testimony of yesterday lies everywhere;

The testimony of tomorrow lies nowhere.

The past fills me with all that I have been;

The future fills me with all I may have been.

A past story the telling of where and when;

A future story awaits the stroke of the pen.

What do we record in the history of the past,

But all the things we lose that will no longer last.

What do we record in the history of tomorrow,

But all the happiness we would like to borrow.

The mystery of the past is that it never survives;

The mystery of the future is that it never arrives.