respect the past

Could you please

not live in the past, unless
you were actually happy back then?

Not

just dipping back
to when things sucked, but

then sneak, bolt off
and live in the imagined futures

that then still seemed
bright? At least,

enough to bask in.

This is not
living in the past.
Respect the past

if you're going to live
there,

live

in what actually happened.
Live in how it was.

Yesterday's futures -
You can just as well
pretend all those things now,
as then. It is the same exact

chance. They have not dimmed
one iota; they are every bit

as possible,
as probable,
as plausible now

as they were at the time.
Even with all of the people involved
married, or dead, or moved away now -
who were not so then -

the specific futures you believed in then
are not one bit more

unlikely now,

then they ever were. You
were just so much better yourself

at playing pretend.