The Now of Then
by Odin Roark

To force denial of yesterday is to perhaps never grasp one’s real tomorrow,

For…

When all seems normal as a sunrise,
when anger shows itself contained,
when agenda plays its hand carefully,
knowing deceit is unacceptable,
it is easy to forget.

For many, the Now of Then is but a time to visit a grandmother’s photo album,
or kneel beside a tilted gravestone’s reflection of light after storm clouds pass,
or stare at the unblinking eye of a tortoise
as the head recedes into its hollow cavern of fortified survival.

Might the Now of Then be all but gone today?
How many of us are either wallowing in worry of the present or fantasizing the future?
Are there those who think through yesterday’s “should-have-done,” while fearing the “got to” of tomorrow?

Who of us suffers from a suffocation of time… and don’t know it?

Such are the thoughts as I look out my window at the sky’s ever changing colors evolving into darkness, allowing rest to prepare tomorrow’s burst of light.

Some ponder what the Then of Now is trying to teach us?